By Crystal Tremblay, Guest Contributor

Congratulations are in order for Noah Koch, a nine-year-old whose Vegan Powerhouse Pesto Pasta recipe beat out nearly 1,300 other entries in a recipe contest called The Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. This national kids’ contest, in which one winner was selected per state, asked kids to create nutritious and affordable recipes with the grand prize of meeting First Lady Michelle Obama.

Koch (whose name means Cook in German) told The Online Sentinel that he has loved cooking for as long as he can remember. Although Koch himself is not vegan, his family eats a primarily vegan diet due to health concerns, so he was very excited to create a recipe with superfoods instead of cheese. Tonya Steele, editor in chief for Epicurious.com, who helped organize the contest, gushed that Koch’s dish was “extremely good” and “tasted very fresh.”

Photo credit: Tom Lohdan