Today we’re going to talk a little bit about Spanish food; their fascinating culture and how they approach food and dining. Similar to the French, mealtime is very important to Spanish culture. It’s important to them that they eat slowly, and that it’s a social occasion, that they enjoy their food, and don’t rush through it.
Here are just few things that are interesting about Spanish meals. So often they are long social affairs that bring people together and allow time for conversation and connection. They have a very structured approach to meals, and they’re had in multiple sittings.
So, desayuno is breakfast, which is typically light; often coffee with a pastry or toast. Then they have a mid-morning snack, which is a light snack before lunch. Then, comida, lunch, is the largest and most important meal of their day, and is usually served between 2:00 and 4:00pm, later than we’re used to. Then an afternoon snack; a light snack before dinner, is often around 6:00 or even 7:00pm. Dinner is usually lighter, and is served late, around 9:00, or even later than that. This structure reflects the importance that they place on taking time to enjoy each meal, rather than rushing through them – time to sit together, to have conversation, and to enjoy the meal time as well.
Their food is very regional – very different in each region, and there’s even specific words for dishes that come from a part of the country. Cooking techniques vary across the country. Paella, which I’m sure you’ve all heard of, is a famous dish from Valencia, and gazpacho is from Andalusia. It’s like cold tomato soup. So, each region’s food is tied to the local identity and traditions that they hold.
There are several words relating to sharing food as well in Spanish. I’m sure you’re familiar with Tapas. That means small dishes that are meant to be shared. It’s an unusual way of eating, but a fun one. Have you ever been to a tapas restaurant, where you each order various small items, and then you share, and get to try a whole lot more things than you would if you just ordered one thing each? Raciones means portions for sharing, and asados is a barbecue. The idea of sharing food with others is embedded in their culture.
Spanish cuisine also focuses on high quality fresh ingredients, prepared very simply to bring out their natural flavors. So, words like fresca, meaning fresh or natural, point to the importance of that in their culture.
They also love to use olive oil – this is not just the Italians, but the Spanish too. Olive oil is not just a staple ingredient in their diet, but also a cultural symbol of Spanish cuisine. They use it in cooking, frying, salad dressings, and all kinds of other ways.
So, the Spanish are very similar to the French in that they like to use fresh ingredients, they like to eat slowly and savor their food, and they like to eat as a social occasion; enjoying good conversation, making the table beautiful, and really appreciating their food. And then they love to use fresh ingredients and lots of olive oil to enhance the flavors.
Let’s talk about how Spanish children eat, and then we’ll talk about Spanish school lunches. Spanish children eat in a similar way to the adults, but obviously they would eat smaller portions, and sometimes their meals would be simpler. Breakfast is often light, so, as I said before, toast with butter and jam, a small sandwich, or a cereal with milk. Sometimes as a treat they may have churros for breakfast. Those are those fried dough sticks, and you can dip them in hot chocolate to enjoy. Then a mid-morning snack around 10:30 or 11:00 is common; something like fruit, yogurt, a piece of bread, or a small pastry like a croissant. In schools, kids often bring a sandwich for this break.
Then their lunch is the main meal of the day, typically between 2:00 and 3:00pm. It’ll have a starter, like a soup or salad, a main course, which will be meat, fish, or even pasta, with some vegetables. Then there’s a dessert of fruit or yogurt. The afternoon snack would be more substantial than the morning snack, and be at about 5:00 or 6:00pm. Again, it would be a sandwich, a piece of fruit, or some bread that they can dip in olive oil. A common one is pan con tomate, which is bread with tomato and olive oil. Often French and even Spanish cultures like to dip their bread rather than put butter on. They’ll have a little bowl of olive oil and maybe some balsamic vinegar in it, and then they’ll dip the bread in that rather than put butter on it. It’s often quite crusty bread.
Then, dinner for Spanish children is a lighter meal than lunch, and eaten later in the day, like around 9:00pm. Perhaps it would just be a smaller portion of the same foods from lunch; a simple salad, soup or pasta.
So, in Spain, family meals are a big deal, and children typically eat with their families, sitting down to a nicely set table, and enjoying that time to connect with each other. They eat fresh seasonal foods, plenty of fruits, vegetables, and olive oil, and meals are often social events with extended family and friends. Their eating habits tend to emphasise balanced, home cooked meals, and a slow, relaxed approach to eating.
Last time we talked about school lunches in France, and this time we’re going to talk about school lunches in Spain, which are also very interesting and rather healthy. I’m going to read from a website called Meddeus.com. Click here to view. As always, there’ll be links in the show notes. If you go to familyfoodformoms.com, episode 24, then you’ll be able to find the links to these websites.
“At lunchtime in Spain, there are no lines, no trays, and definitely no neon [coloured] dessert”; “Every meal consists of two courses, served family-style in huge metal bowls.” Students sit at long tables, and “a team of sweet, smiling women prepares and serves the food.”
“One of the lunch ladies brought out a heaping dish of paella: steaming yellow rice dotted with carrots, peas, potatoes, and tender pieces of cod.” “I’ve also feasted on the simplest tortilla espanola… and thick and hearty vegetable soups… salty slabs of thinly sliced pork atop lettuce and tomatoes drowning in vinegar and olive oil… I’ve ended every meal with a piece of fresh fruit, apple, banana, mandarin oranges, plump green grapes, and slices of juicy melon.”
She is a teacher who sat with the students and ate the same as they do. Like in France, the children are expected to eat real food, not junk food or fast food. And they eat what is served. This is from the same website:
“The school day may be longer than you expect, as the first class takes place at 8am and the day finishes at 5… There is a big two hour lunch break in the middle to break up the day… You have plenty of time to unwind after a morning full of exciting lessons.”
The food is very healthy and nutritious. “A freshly prepared salad is served every day… ensuring we are all topped up with vitamins to give us a healthy body and mind to finish the school day.”
And then there’s a picture showing a Spanish school lunch consisting of fresh salad, Spanish tortilla, fried artichoke, and a dish of tuna, potato, and green beans, served with fresh fruit.
This is from a website called delishably.com Click here to see it..
“Wow, the kids in Spain are eating a very healthy lunch, and it’s a sharp contrast to the ones the kids are eating here. She saw a video from an American teenager whose lunch included yellow macaroni and cheese, and a small greasy roll up sandwich that she was dunking into an orange nacho cheese sauce. But in Europe you won’t find these processed foods. To start her kids had a puree of zucchini soup. The main course was beef with carrot sauce and sautéed vegetables. And for dessert they enjoyed fresh fruit. That sounds delightful”.
Then this is from a website is called Spanishsabores.com:
“When mealtime rolls around, Spanish children usually dig in to whatever the adults are eating. While there are some foods that seem to be kid favorites, [like] white rice, or pasta, or croquettes… Spanish kids scarf down meals that would seem downright exotic to most.”
“Not all children in Spain eat lunch at school.” Some of them eat at home. Spain is famous for its late lunch, and in this case 3:00pm is when the children get home and eat their lunch. “Lots of kids will bring a piece of fruit or a simple sandwich on crusty baguette-style bread to munch on during recess around 11am.” But then other schools serve the children lunch in the middle of the day.
The children eat lots of fish and vegetables, and here she gives some other unusual examples:
Huevos rebozados are “fried eggs, but not the diner ones you are familiar with!… [They are] hard boiled, stuffed with tuna, then dipped in béchamel sauce and breadcrumbs before being fried… they are also served with tomato sauce and potato chips.”
This one, purrusalda, is a soup made with leeks, fish, potatoes, and carrots.
They also have hamburgers of a different kind to the usual; a meat patty served with no bun, with tomato sauce, and with a vegetable on the side.
Then there’s a soup which is cooked up with a huge list of ingredients, including meat. It’s a very healthy soup.
So, we see that it’s often whole, nutritious food. Kids eat the same as the adults, and there’s lots of salad and vegetables involved. They have good protein and good fruit – very good lunches are served. I think the main thing that we can see from this is that there’s just not processed food. There’s no frozen, reheated food. There’s no junk food. It’s good, nutritious, fresh, in season, home cooked food, just like the children in France have.
I find this very inspiring, but of course, it’s not easy to have food like that, especially when you’re sending lunch with your children. I’m going to give you some ideas of things you could do in different courses in your child’s lunchbox. Hopefully you can take some of them and leave some of them, and see what works for you.
So, let’s think of it in four different parts. Maybe you have a lunch box with four compartments, or you have a lunch bag and then some small containers with lids that you can put individually into the bags. The first one would be the salad or vegetables, the second one would be the protein or main course, the third one would be some kind of dairy, and the fourth one would be fruit. Then we could add in some crusty bread if necessary.
I’m leaning more towards the French style of doing this. There’s more variety and I like the idea of the dairy. If your children don’t eat dairy, you can skip that or substitute it with something else, but these are the four categories I’ll be speaking about.
For the first course, let’s think about some kind of vegetable that you can eat cold. That could be a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and maybe feta. If you like something interesting, you could add some croutons, or you could add some cheese like cheddar in little blocks, or Emmentaler, or other more unusual cheese. You could add a few little pieces of goat’s cheese. You can get plain goat’s cheese, or cream cheese – it’s similar. And then you can get something like sun dried tomato on it or herbs in the cheese. Any kind of cheese is good on the salad – this would be in addition to the separate dairy part. I just like to have cheese on salad, but you could leave that out if you’re going to have cheese in your other course and you don’t want too much.
You could also put things like avocado on your salad, and a little bit of lemon juice on top, or olive oil and balsamic vinegar. You could include some red peppers, or you could include some seeds like pumpkin seeds. A little salad is always great! And then sometimes you could do a different salad, like a cucumber and tomato salad – very simple slices of cucumber and tomato with a little olive oil and salt. Or, you could do a little grated carrot salad and add a little orange juice to it for flavor. If you’re in a hurry, you could just simply put a few small carrots, green beans, or peas in. You could also do something like steamed broccoli with a little lemon juice and salt on it, as those are still good cold. You can do anything that you like to do as a salady thing for a small part of your child’s lunch.
Then, for the main course, think of a protein that you are okay with them eating cold. Chicken breasts are great, and definitely even better when enhanced by a sauce, maybe a little cream sauce or some mushrooms. You can use any leftovers that you have; perhaps a bit of steak, or some meatballs. I wouldn’t put in fish or pork, as that is not a cold meat, just because it may not last until lunchtime without going off. But then use any sliced cold meat, like pastrami from corned beef, or some ham. Obviously, you could make sandwiches using sliced meat and cheese, but then try to put it on good healthy bread with good butter, and the healthiest meat you can find, so that there’s some good protein in there.
If you have a flask, you could make soup instead of the salad – a good, hearty winter soup, or a chicken noodle soup, or a pea and ham soup. Any soup that you have or buy, you can heat it up and put it in portions in their lunch.
Then, for the dairy course, it’s easy to do a small yogurt or small piece of cheese, even a small piece of brie or camembert, perhaps with some crackers to spread the cheese on.
And then lastly you can put in a piece of fruit; an orange or an apple, something for them to end off with. The idea is just to avoid the processed prepackaged snacks. I know it’s more work, but for me, it’s worth it. You could do a little bit of trail mix in one compartment, with nuts, raisins, and some seeds, and certainly sometimes you can add a granola bar or something on the side – anything that works for your family without it being too overwhelming, but that moves in the direction of whole food and good health for your child. Also, I think a great strategy is to have water with your meal rather than a juice or a chocolate milk or something.
Happy lunch making! That’s all for today, and thanks for joining me.
