Learn how to cook with this delicious alphabet soup recipe for kids! A fun cooking lesson for kids which includes the recipe, books, and activities all about soup and the alphabet!
To begin our Little Hands that Cook with Books Cooking Lesson this week we read The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin. In the story, the little girl compares her own family’s green leafy vegetable garden to the neighbors’ colorful flowering gardens. At the end of the story, her Mother makes a special soup from her garden that attracts all the neighbors and encourages them to plant their very own Chinese vegetables the next season along with their flowers.
This was such a great book to teach about making growing vegetables and making Soup.
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The author, Grace Lin, has a website with resources and lots of other great titles.
Here’s the vegetable soup recipe to make your very own Ugly Vegetable Soup from the book.
Want a little more protein? Try making this Homemade Chicken Vegetable Soup.
After reading the story the girls the girls went shopping for the ingredients to make Alphabet Soup.
Alphabet Soup Recipe for Kids
Pick your favorite soup recipe to use. We followed a simple minestrone soup recipe to add our noodles to. You can find it below.
You could also consider making a Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili instead for this cooking with kids activity.
They selected vegetable words from the pot and had to find them on the counter. They each were responsible for washing the vegetables that they found on the counter.
Then we divided up all the vegetables equally and started cutting with our metal butter knives.
They did such a great job chopping up their zucchini, yellow squash, celery, carrots, green beans, and even some onions.
We measured our chicken broth and diced tomatoes and put them into the pot and then the adult was in charge of cooking.
Once all of their vegetables were chopped up we added a dash of all the seasonings, making sure to smell first to see what we’re adding.
The soup only took minutes to cook. At the very end, we added our Alphabet Pasta to finish it off. I had precooked it before our cooking lesson began since there were multiple kids. You can do this too with your child.
Each child had their own pot cooking.
Want something a little simpler? Try this delicious Homemade Tomato Soup with the kids!
While our soup was cooking it was Alphabet Soup Time.
Alphabet Soup Song
Each of the girls received a few letters to play the game Alphabet Soup. Here’s the Song…
Alphabet Soup Activity
Now it was time to make our very own Alphabet Soup. Each child had the opportunity to cut their own pot with black paper. Then it was time to add the soup. They took alphabet pasta and glued it onto the paper. I love that they all look different.
As we were working on it the girls came up with other ideas for the Alphabet Soup Song. Their ideas were a Rhyming Soup Song and a Sight Word Soup Song, which we will most certainly be making this week.
The whole house was filled the the aroma of our soup cooking while we were making our project. It was such a perfect way to relate to the book.
They could not wait to taste their very own soup.
It was so cute all of the bowls were empty within minutes. Then they each brought home a container to share with their families too. They were so proud of their own accomplishment.
I encourage you to check out your local libraries under children’s books and the topic soup! There were so many to choose from for this lesson. I am so excited to extend our collection of Soup books and foresee many more cooking lessons in making soup.
Books About Soup for Kids
Recipe for Alphabet Soup
Alphabet Vegetable Soup Recipe
A tasty and simple alphabet soup for kids to make as they enjoy eating their veggies!
Ingredients
- 1 zucchini
- 1 yellow squash
- 1 celery
- 2 carrots
- 1 can of green beans
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 can of tomatoes
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- pinch of salt
- pinch of pepper
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- I cup of cooked alphabet noodles
- Optional:
- Kale
- white beans
- fresh herbs
Instructions
- Slice zucchini, yellow squash, celery, carrots, and onions into small pieces.
- Add olive oil to a large pot and saute onions, garlic, celery, and carrots until just softened.
- Then add green beans and tomatoes into the pot and combine.
- Add salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
- Add vegetable stock and stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium-high heat for 20 minutes.
- Finally, add the cooked alphabet noodles once the soup has finished cooking.
You may also enjoy these activities and recipes with your child…
Wolfe Stew says
Stone soup was always a favorite of mine. I remember all the kids brought in a different ingredient to add to the pot. I love this idea and will add it to my idea calendar. Thanks for sharing it!
HumbleMom says
This is such a great idea!
Amanda says
I didn't know there were so many books about soup. Elly LOVED making this soup and serving it for dinner. She was so proud! We have been singing this song too – I need to make little rhyming word cards to play / sing with.