Recipes

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These recipes are brought to you in part by the support of SmartPartner.

Tips for Fresh Prep Success in School Food

  1. Equip Yourself to Succeed: It is true that cooking from scratch takes more time and labor. Make sure you are helping your staff to succeed by using equipment that will speed up the process.
    • KNIVES are the most important piece of equipment you need. Make sure you have the right knives and that they are sharp. Then make sure your staff knows how to use them. Many people believe that a steel will sharpen a knife. While this tool will certainly hone a knife’s edge making it feel sharper, knives still need to be sharpened using a stone. Investing in a regular knife sharpening service will help keep your knives sharp, your knife cuts perfect and your fingers intact.
    • Food processors, graters, choppers and other mechanical means of cutting up fruits and vegetables are extremely important items for prepping large quantities of vegetables. Raw vegetables require washing, draining and may require peeling, but after that, getting that product into prep size pieces can be made easier with equipment that can chop, dice, grind and slice larger quantities. Investing in the right equipment can help reduce labor hours which, over time, allows you to shift more money toward the purchase of fresh products.
    • Large commercial skillets, kettles and multi-use convection ovens can make fresh prep in institutional kitchens so much easier. These items can cook off huge batches of vegetables to make stir fries, sauteed greens, soups, stews and more. They can save time and labor during the prep day.
    • That being said, without proper TRAINING, equipment goes unused. Providing that training to staff is essential. All staff should know how these machines function and how they are cleaned, stored and maintained.
    • Equipment is available from many sources, including large distributors. Most suppliers have sales people available to help guide you in equipment selection and even may be able to provide training to your staff. While equipment purchases can be costly, there are more and more funding opportunities available to schools looking to upgrade kitchen equipment so if purchasing new equipment isn’t in your budget, contact the NJ Farm to School Network and we’ll help find you funding.
  2. Read My Lips: It’s All About Flavor: So much of cooking is about taste. The most beautiful presentation can be sidelined if the product doesn’t taste good. Encourage your staff to TASTE what they are making to see if it has the right balance. Food made from scratch has much less salt in it than processed foods with preservatives so make sure when cooking from scratch that you understand when to salt during cooking and how much. Start out with less, you can always add more. And don’t forget about herbs and spices. Dried herbs and spices are perfectly fine but if you have access to fresh herbs, these add a different quality to food and are opportunities to highlight the real thing.

Do you have a school garden? Ask the folks running it to grow basil so that you can make fresh basil pesto. Serve it in the lunchroom and highlight where the basil came from and what recipe you used. Pesto is one of the easiest things to make and stores in the freezer when making large quantities.

  1. Salad Bar Stars: Beyond iceberg lettuce, carrots, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, there are a world of things that can be served in salad bars. Some ideas include:
    • Sliced raw veggies with lemon juice, olive oil and salt sprinkled on them (these last in the fridge a day or two and are even better after the lemon juice is absorbed). Things like sliced raw zucchini, sliced raw fennel, sliced raw cauliflower florets, shredded cabbage are a few that lemon juice works wonders on.
    • Asian Slaws: Shred any type of cabbage… red, green, Savoy. Chinese, Bok Choy, you name it. Slice something with color like carrots or red peppers. Chop up some scallions or red onion. You can add almost any sliced veg—green beans, snow peas, celery…just make sure the slaw has a mix of colors and textures and make a dressing out of soy sauce, vegetable oil, rice wine vinegar and a bit of honey. Fresh herbs torn up like cilantro and basil provide a boost of flavor as well. Get rid of those mayonnaise based coleslaws and freshen up the slaw family with this less heavy cousin!
    • Canned beans: If you don’t have the time to cook beans but have a source for good canned beans, add these to the salad bar for protein. Garbanzos and black beans are often seen on salad bars but any type of cooked bean (not mushy though…) works well.

Click below to access each of the recipes:

 

If you have a recipe that you would like to share, please send your information to [email protected].

Please don’t forget the following:

 

  • Recipe Name
  • Ingredients
  • Directions
  • Nutritional information
  • Batch Size (# it serves)
  • Farm Source (if known/applicable)
  • Your Name
  • Your Affiliation (school, food service org., etc.)
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