Fun, play and laughter are key to positive engagement with veg
If your child loves a laugh and a bit of silly science, then engaging with veggies through kitchen science experiments could be a perfect way for them to experience vegetables positively, making it more likely they will eat it.
We roped in the Gastronaut himself, Stefan Gates, for some silly kitchen science experiments and scientific observations you can just watch or do at home. They are affordable and guaranteed to be fun, and range from super super simple to up-for-a-challenge for the more handsy amongst you, too!
Colour-changing cabbage!
Cabbage is a PH indicator, meaning you can use cabbage water mixed with acids or alkali to change its colour over and over!
Finely slice a couple of handfuls of red cabbage and place in a bowl or container with some water then blend with a hand blender until smooth.
Get a big jug or container of water and find a light to place under it (you can use a phone torch or a lamp, but be careful how and where you place it, and add a waterproof clear layer in between to be sure it doesn’t get wet!).
Place a strainer or sieve over the jug of water and add in the blitzed up cabbage, pushing it down into the sieve with the back of a spoon to get the purple cabbage liquid draining through into the water.
Watch as the water turns from purple to blue!
Stir some lemon juice or vinegar into the blue cabbage water until it turns bright pink!
To move this now-acidic liquid to ‘basic’ (alkali) by adding washing powder and watch it change colour yet again to turquoise. Keep adding lemon/vinegar and/or washing powder to change the colour again and again if you like.
Radish mice
Grab a handful of radishes, ideally with a little ‘tail’ and tiny green top. Slice lengthways through the top and lay both halves flat so you have about ⅔ of the radish with the green top (mouse nose!) and ⅓ of it extra on the side.
Carefully slice a very thin circle off the remaining ⅓ of the radish on each side (see video for tips on this, it may take a few goes and a few radishes to get right) – these two circles are your ears.
About halfway up your mouse body (the ⅔ of the radish with the green top nose), poke a sharp knife in fairly deep on both sides to make 2 slits (for the ears), then use the blade of a pair of scissors to make 2 deep but small holes either side of the green top ‘nose’ for eyes.
Find 2 very small raisins or peppercorns to place in the holes for eyes, then slot the circle ears into the slits you made for them. You have a radish mouse!
Repeat until you have a few to add to your raw snack bowl for a fun way to present and eat raw veg.
Veg that adds colour, smells and gas!
Some veg can change the colour of your poo and wee, make your pee smell funny, and make you, well, a bit gassy!
If your child loves a bit of toilet humour, this is the one for them. Did you know that beetroot will give you red poos (and sometimes wee, too)?! Try eating some beetroot with dinner and see what happens tomorrow…
Asparagus is famous for giving you smelly wee! Have you ever noticed this? See if you do next time you try it.
If you can find some Jerusalem artichokes, which grow in the UK and are in season in the winter (Nov-Feb), they are full of indigestible fibres, meaning you can’t break them down in your small intestine and they get broken down in colon, causing…well, why not grab a Whoopee Cushion and have a guess? If you can’t find Jerusalem artichokes, there’s an easy, famous, and often eaten alternative… yep, good old baked beans!
Exploring colour and shape
Exploring the colour and shape of vegetables is the simplest experiment you can do – but it is fascinating and a great way to get hands on and encourage play with veg!
Grab a head of broccoli and cauliflower. Did you know that they are actually bunches of flowers and if you left them to grow in the field they would eventually bloom? Carefully slice the head of cauliflower and broccoli through the middle, taking off the root end and the bottom half of the florets and see if you can find the tree-like pattern of branches!
If you can find a romanesco cauliflower, this one is even cooler, and covered in a “fractal” mathematical pattern of spirals that repeats perfectly over and over.
Did you know that carrots weren’t originally orange? We’ve bred them to be orange over the years (thanks to the Dutch royal “House of Orange” in the Netherlands). But you can still find the more original ‘carrot’ colours in some shops and greengrocers – keep an eye out for purple or yellow carrots next time you pass a big array of vegetables and see what colours you can spot!
Similarly, beetroot might be almost always eaten purple, but did you know you can get golden beetroot, and even “candy striped” beetroot with rows of purple and white circles? If you can find one, slice through the middle and find the colour and stripes – they are fascinating!
These are some of my favourite suggestions, but you can explore the colour and shapes of any veggies – just grab a few and feel free to play, tear and cut them apart to explore and play with them. Describe what you see and see if it reminds you of anything.
Musical carrots!
This one is a little more full-on! You will definitely need an adult doing large parts of this experiment, but there is a lot of fun to be had at the end.
Grab a large carrot and a drill fitted with an extra-wide drill bit (yes, really!). Cut off the top off the carrot, and the bottom ¼ of it, too. Pop on some safety goggles, then drill a hole in the middle of the carrot through the top, wide end to about halfway down. Swap the drill bit to a small one, and drill a smaller hole from the bottom to meet the middle one. Blow through the hole to get the little bits out and make sure you have a hole (large at the top and small at the bottom) going all the way through the carrot.
Grab a straw (ideally a biodegradable one that’s still slightly plasticky in texture) and cut it in half. Dispose of the top, bendy half, and cut a V-shape on one end of the lower half (watch the video to see how it should look).
Slide the straw (V-cut side up) into the top of the carrot, with half of it poking out of the top of the carrot, then have a go at blowing through it to see if you can make some music!
You can try this with any root veg – why not make a veg orchestra?
Stefan Gates
Stefan Gates is a multi-award-winning TV presenter, author, podcaster and science communicator specialising in food and science. He has written 12 books, presented over 20 TV series and staged over 3,000 live stage shows around the world.
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