Easy-to-Make Recipes to Turn Your Kids Into Tomato Lovers

When kids say they don’t like a food — especially a fruit or vegetable — it’s often because they haven’t found a way to enjoy it yet. But it can take trying something again and again to develop a taste for it. In fact, children may need to taste something up to 20 times before learning to like it. So, if your child is resisting a healthy food, the best thing you can do is expose them to it in new and exciting ways.

One thing picky eaters love to hate is tomatoes. But if they’ve ever had pizza and liked it, they’re probably more open to the vegetable-like fruit than they may realize. When cooked, tomatoes are completely transformed, taking on whole new textures and easy-to-love flavors. Ahead, find four kid-friendly recipes that could turn the staunchest tomato haters into everyday eaters.

Baby bolognese

Although this simple pasta dish was originally created with little eaters in mind, it’s also a satisfying, quick-cooking meal the whole family can enjoy. You can use Hunt’s Heirloom Crushed Tomatoes for the pickiest eaters, but once they’re more comfortable eating tomatoes, swap them for Hunt’s Heirloom Diced Tomatoes.

One-pan lasagna

Every family should have a one-pan meal tucked into its back pocket, and this simple lasagna is a great one. Hunt’s Heirloom Whole Tomatoes — whole canned tomatoes are the freshest tasting — get blitzed in a food processor with carrots, onion and garlic to create a sauce that’s perfect for simmering with ground meat and adding to lasagna.

Shakshuka

This popular North African breakfast does double duty when it comes to mealtime: It’s as at home at dinner as it is during the first meal of the day. Essentially nothing more than eggs poached in a tomato sauce laced with onions and sweet peppers and spiked with paprika and cumin, this one-pan meal gets a cheesy twist when topped with feta or goat cheese.

Pantry pizza sauce

Kids love pizza, and making your own sauce with canned tomatoes is a great way to control the salt and sugar content, which is often high in commercially prepared sauces. A quick pantry pizza sauce can be used to make your at-home pizza pies.

This post was sponsored by Hunt’s.