Scratch Cooking for Our Community: Indian Recipes

Northshore Food and Nutrition Services strives to create a school lunch program that is more inclusive of the diverse backgrounds in the District. To that end, we have been working with school and community members to develop new menu items with Indian flavors.

We are excited about our vegan chana masala recipe, which was recently sampled at Leota Middle School for student feedback. The recipe will be offered next at Lockwood Elementary on Oct. 30, 2019. After gathering more student feedback and making any adjustments to the recipe, we plan to add vegan chana masala on menus districtwide!

The vegan chana masala recipe will join two other Indian recipes. Chicken curry has already appeared on menus districtwide. Tikka masala is on the menu for secondary schools on Nov. 12, 2019.

These new recipes are tied to our goal of moving away from processed foods and introducing more “from-scratch” options. In the last year, we successfully tested and rolled out nearly 20 scratch menu items.

To accomplish this initiative, we have been working with nutrition students and dietetic interns to help develop new scratch-made menu items (like the vegan chana masala), process student feedback and help the District adapt to changing community needs.