The Food of West Asia

Train your class to be confident food scientists with this series of five DT cooking and nutrition lessons. Over the course of the unit, your children will learn about West Asian produce and explore the smell, taste and textures of typical West Asian foods. Children will learn all about good food nutrition and safe, hygienic food preparation while also enjoying practical opportunities to apply their skills: creating meal plans for the Caliph, adapting and improving recipes and practising different food preparation techniques.

Each of these five ready-to-teach Early Islamic Civilisation DT lessons comes complete with a detailed lesson plan and slideshow as well as printable recipes and resources to support differentiated, practical activities.

You may also like our Early Islamic Civilisation Topic Bundle containing four ready-to-teach schemes of work covering History, Geography, Art and DT. 

West Asian produce

During this introductory lesson, children will learn about the typical diets of 10th century Baghdadis, the produce available to them and where these ingredients were grown, reared and caught. Children find out how and why food spoils as well as how to keep food fresh and preserve it out of season.

The children apply their understanding of hygiene and practise their knife skills while following a recipe to preserve a fruit or vegetable.

This lesson comes with everything you need to explore West-Asian produce and seasonality, including a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides and printable resources to support the practical food preservation activities.

View Lesson 1

Smell taste and texture

In this lesson, children will learn that ingredients differ in nutritional composition, flavour, texture and appearance. Children taste test a range of typical West Asian ingredients before combining ingredients with different flavour profiles to create a delicious labneh - a strained and seasoned yoghurt.

This session can be extended to cook and taste the recipes analysed.

This lesson pack has everything you need to carry out taste tasting with your class, including: a detailed lesson plan and explanatory teacher notes, PDF lesson slides and printable resources.

View Lesson 2

Healthy and varied diets

In this lesson, children learn how nutritional needs differ from person to person as well as how to read and analyse food nutrition labels. Children analyse the composition of three recipes (leblebi, hummus and falafel) before using their understanding to create a balanced meal plan for themselves or for the Caliph.

This session can be extended to prepare and cook the recipes analysed.

This lesson pack comes with all of the resources you need to help children understand and apply the principles of good nutrition, including PDF lesson slides, a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, printable recipes and resources.

View Lesson 3

West Asian recipes

Share some of the Caliph’s favourite recipes - lentil soup, couscous salad and chickpea stew - with children in this lesson which sets up a good, old-fashioned cooking competition.

Children draw on everything they have learned to adapt one of the recipes to create the most appealing, flavourful and nutritious dish for the Caliph’s upcoming feast. There is even the option to use an online nutrition calculator so children can see the nutritional impact of their suggested recipe adaptations.

This instantly downloadable lesson pack comes with everything you need to support your children's learning: a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, PDF slideshow, printable recipes and resources.

View Lesson 4

West Asian cookery

This last session sees your Food Scientists prepare, cook and evaluate their West-Asian inspired dish for the Caliph. Not only will the children enjoy cooking and eating their dish, but they will also learn about safe food storage so they know how to save any leftovers.

Let children enjoy the experience of sharing and celebrating their food before you get them started on the washing up!

This lesson pack includes all you need to support children to prepare and cook a savoury West-Asian-inspired dish, including: a detailed and differentiated lesson plan, engaging lesson slides and printable resources.

View Lesson 5