The sounds of chopping and sizzling echo through our training kitchen. Step inside, and you’ll find our Nutrition Education team in action. It’s recipe testing day, a hands-on process that ensures our recipe cards are as delicious and practical as they are nutritious.
At the heart of CAFB’s nutrition education efforts are our recipe cards, produce guides, and 7 Ways cards, which offer new ways to use an ingredient. These resources help make cooking easy and accessible for the communities we serve. Before a recipe is added to our collection, it must pass a few tests. Does it taste good? Are the instructions clear? That’s where recipe testing and development days come in.
On this day, the team worked on a variety of dishes, from spicy shakshuka to filling breakfast burritos and refreshing beet salad. Recipes were made following preexisting recipes, or from scratch in a process to develop a new dish. Each dish had room for refinement where necessary, and the tweaks were carefully recorded.
“Do you think this needs less onion?” “This needs more flavor.” Honest feedback flew around the kitchen as team members and other colleagues took turns tasting and evaluating. Adjustments were made on the spot, ensuring that every recipe meets our standards before making its way to the community.
Beyond taste, our recipes are designed to be healthy and accessible. Every dish is run through software to analyze its nutritional profile and to align with the Healthy Pantry Initiative’s color-coded system. The goal is recipes that fall in the “green” and “yellow” categories, which means they are nutrient-rich and balanced. We prioritize ingredients commonly found in our food distributions, like beans, whole grains, and fresh produce, ensuring that the recipes we develop are truly usable.
“A big thing we’re looking for with our recipes is that they are accessible meaning that they are easy for anyone to follow no matter the cooking level or the reading level. We test them to make sure that everything is clear and easy.” Keaton Bergeron, Nutrition Education Specialist
Want to try these recipes for yourself? Check out our full collection of written recipes and visit our YouTube channel for step-by-step videos to bring these delicious meals to your own kitchen!