Advice on introducing Indian/spicy foods to children

[Lulurose]

My husband is Indian, we cook Indian food and order it in quite often but as yet have never shared it with our dds (almost 3 and 18months). We had lunch at DHs aunts last weekend and she had cooked a dahl for them and a very hot curry for us, was a bit embarassed that they wouldn't eat it, only the rice.

Anyone have any ideas of what to offer them to gradually introduce them to the flavours of Indian cookery. Recipes/ideas would be gratefully received. Thanks!

I tend not to really let them eat anything hot/ ie chilli spicy at all.
My Dh is Indian and my SIL's childern don't eat any really chilli food, they tend to have mild dishes without chilli.
This is however because generally they don't like the food too hot and tend to stick their tongues out if it is too chilli.
Cook them curries but without chilli in, is my advice

Yes, wasn't thinking of chilli yet although they will have a mild chilli con carne on a baked potato. The dahl that dhs aunt had made was what she said she was weaned on in India when she was a child, it was really mild (no chilli but the flavours were obviously completely unfamiliar). Will keep trying though.

I give the baby I look after tarka dhal and chicken korma, she loved them, 8 months old

Start using spices like turmeric, nutmeg, coriander seed, cumin etc in the food you cook at home, to get them used to the tastes. Also garlic, if they're not used to it. My older two quite like my very mild curries - just enough spice to give a hot taste, without burning - but the flavour that took them time to get used to was definitely the cumin.

Also give it to them with yogurt swirled through, so the tastes mingle but are not completely mixed.

yes, mine have also been eating mild curry (like korma or mild tomato based ones) since they were weaned

you could start with small bits of dahl or chicken korma

my children's favourite is a lamb curry made with spices and a big pot of creme fraiche - add lots of vegetables too so they see bits they are familiar with.

Also, if you have a family friendly Indian restaurant, take them on a quiet early evening, order lots of different dishes and let them pick from your plates. Things like poppadoms, onion bhajis, samoosas - those sorts of things are very popular with children.

mine liked a bit of mild curry inside naan bread as a sandwich....

I give my dd (now 3) mild curries and heat ours up BUT she always pilfers our curry and loves it

My little one can't get enough spices! Made a spinach dhaal that was a little cumin-y when she was about 7 mths so watered it down but she'll have a takeaway with us now if she's up and eats exactly what we do (we don't cook with salt now but lots of strong flavours - garlic, cumin, chilli etc). She really surprises us sometimes. She is 15mths now btw.

So give it a go - just make sure they have lots of water available.

Thanks everyone, will make our curries a bit milder from now on and try creamier ones to begin with,and naan and popadoms to dip with (they love dipping!)

I agree that cumin is probably the spice that is the most unlikely to go down well initially. Will keep trying as I don't want them to miss out, just wish i'd started earlier.

I give the 20 month old indian dishes but WITHOUT chilli e.g. curries that just use spices

I usually serve her something else and then let her fiddle with my plate and see what she likes

some stuff she is quite keen on

I mix it with lots of rice too

my kids (6 and 3) love spicy food and have been eating it since about 12 months old

do you have any Indian restaurants that do buffets .. we have a few on our high street on a sunday they do a serve yourself all you can eat buffet and the kids love it ... they can have poppadums (big crisps) and rice and try everything they like the look of .. and it doesn't piss you orf if they don't like it .. its fun

I let mine choose what they want and each time they try something different

cumin is a fabulous spice .. warm and mellow .. why avoid?

cloves are also good as a chilli substitute. with cumin and coriander, yum. also agree about the swirling in of yoghurt.

I agree it shouldn't be avoided at all, you can't really anyway with Indian cooking but it would be quite a different taste for my two, not a flavour they've encountered before i'm afraid.

Yes we have loads of family friendly Indian restaurants near us...we will give it a try this weekend, a really good idea, hopefully they won't mind a bit of mess!!

please don't get narked if all they want is rice and poppadums .. its all new and it takes a good few tries for them to settle and just try stuff ... just enjoy it as a family day out

Quite, I think the reason we've not tried before is because we felt they wouldn't eat enough to make it worthwhile but the experience is enough by itself.

I find most of the sunday buffet things don't charge for little ones anyway .. at least they don't round here .. or at least they didn't till they realised that our 3 year old can eat more than an average adult .. now they bill us

I make a veg and chick pea curry with coconut milk and mild curry powder. DS has loved this since he was tiny, had it mashed with cous cous before he could even manage to chew rice
Never managed to persuade him that lentils are edible though. Maybe it was the lentils your dds didn't like rather than the flavour? They do have a wierd texture.

If they like rice, give them nice rich but mild biriyanis - ds loves biriyani. And add a tiny bit of mild sauce at one side of the plate.

Tandoori is also quite a good introduction - DS loves mildly spiced tandoori chicken.

DS hates dahl and has done since I introduced lentils as a weaning food. Rough texture.

We're off to stay with DPs Indian-diaspora family next week - DS's tastes have actually become less adventurous in some ways, so I'm wondering how he'll get on. He would eat a really hot samosa at 3, but he won't now (at just6). But he will eat rice dishes.

Mine love aloo paratha, the double layer roti with potato mix in between.

On the 'spoonful of sugar' principle - we always gave our kids anything curry based with huuuge side servings of mild mango chutney and bananas in yoghurt.

as previously posted, eventually you just lessen the proportions of everything but the curry, and voila - spice-eating kiddies!

You could try putting spices in normal dishes as a way of introducing new flavours without being confronted with something completely unfamiliar. For example, a little bit of ground cumin and coriander in shephards pie, or in casseroles. And if you start with small amounts it wont be too overpowering.

I make vegetable pakoras for dd (11mo). Grated veggies such as carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin and courgette, a sprinkle of cumin and coriander, a few table spoons of chick pea flour to bind it all together. Shallow fry spoonfuls until golden brown. I then stick them in the oven at about 180 for about 15 mins to ensure they're cooked thoroughly.