When making your own baby food emember food safety
• Special care should be taken when preparing foods for babies
because they are more vulnerable to germs than are older children
or adults.
• Always wash your hands and equipment thoroughly before making baby food.
• Raw food contains bacteria. Never let cooked food come into contact
with raw food. Thoroughly wash cutting boards and utensils that have been used
with raw foods to avoid the cross-contamination that is responsible for many
foodborne illnesses (food poisoning).
• Do not let baby food sit at room temperature for more than two hours.
Harmful bacteria in the food grow very well if given a chance. Refrigerate
or freeze baby food as soon as possible.
Essential equipment
Something to mash or grind the food such as: food grinder, blender,
potato masher, or fork.
Quality food without added sugar, salt, or fat. (we recommend organic)
Containers for storage like clean, dry jars, plastic storage containers,
or ice cube trays.
Here are a number of recipes you may like
to try.
6-9 months: (Most babies up to the age of six months need only breast
or formula milk, the World Health Organisation advises. If you think
your baby needs solids before this time talk to your health visitor)
APPLE AND DRIED APRICOT PUREE
Ingredients
150g dried apricots
2 apples, peeled and cored
water to cover
Place the apricots in a small pan and gently simmer for 15 minutes,
more water may need to be added, if the mix gets dry.
Add the chopped apple and simmer for a further 5 minutes, remove
from the heat, cover the pan with a lid and allow the mixture to
cool for 10 minutes.
Mash or place in a processor and whiz until smooth, add more water
if needed.
WINTER VEGETABLE PUREE
Ingredients
1 potato
1 carrot
1 swede
1 brussel sprout
Peel and trim all the vegetables, dice and place in a small saucepan,
cover with water and simmer for 30 minutes.
Drain the vegetables, reserving the cooking water
Mash the vegetables add a little of the cooking water and blend until
smooth, adding more liquid if needed to obtain the correct consistency.
Cauliflower and sweet potato puree
Ingredients
3 cauliflower florets
1 medium sweet potato
1 carrot
Chop the cauliflower florets and place in a medium saucepan, along
with the peeled and chopped sweet potato and carrot, cover with water
and simmer for 30 minutes or until soft.
Drain off the liquid, reserving a little, mash and puree the vegetables
until smooth, adding a little of the reserved water to obtain a soft
consistency.
Freeze excess puree in ice cube trays or small pots so you can defrost
for later use.
CHRISTMAS VEGETABLE PUREE
It's baby's first Christmas so why not offer him/her this special
Christmas Vegetable Puree
Ingredients
1 carrot
1 parsnip
2 brussel sprouts
1 potato
Peel and chop all the vegetables, place in a pan and cover with water.
Simmer for 30 minutes then drain, reserving the cooking water.
Blend all the vegetables and add extra cooking water until you have
the desired consistency. Enjoy your first Christmas meal together.p
BACK TO ROOTS
Ingredients
1 parsnip
1 carrot
1 small swede
1 small sweet potato
Peel and chop all the vegetables, place in a pan, cover with water
and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft.
Drain the vegetables, reserving the cooking liquid, then mash or
puree, adding the reserved liquid to obtain the required consistency.
Freeze excess puree in ice cubes or small pots and defrost for later
use.
PURRIED BROWN RICE
Pureed rice is great for babies as you can add pureed vegetables
to it or fruit to make a sweet or savoury meal.
Ingredients
100g brown rice
600ml water
Rinse the rice well in cold water.
Place in a saucepan with 600ml water and bring to the boil, then
reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Drain the rice, reserving the liquid, puree adding extra liquid to
obtain the required consistency.
BUTTERNUT AND SWEET POTATO PUREE
Equal quantities of the vegetables make for the best mix and taste.
Ingredients
1 sweet potato
½ butternut pumpkin
Peel the potato and dice, peel and deseed the pumpkin and dice.
Place both vegetables in a saucepan, cover with water and simmer
for 40 minutes, until very soft.
Drain and reserve the water then liquidise the vegetables, adding
a little of the reserved cooking water to obtain the correct consistency.
CAULIFLOWER AND SWEDE PUREE
Cauliflower is lovely when pureed and stays fairly 'chunky', so it
is great to serve when starting to introduce a coarser texture.
Ingredients
½ small cauliflower
1 medium swede
Remove the core from the cauliflower, wash thoroughly and roughly
chop.
Peel the swede and roughly dice.
Cover the vegetables with water and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until
they are soft.
Drain off the cooking water and reserve.
Blend the vegetables to a smooth puree, adding a little reserved
cooking liquid to obtain the desired consistency.
Freeze extra mixture in ice cube trays and then store in plastic
bags or Tupperware containers so you can simply defrost when needed.
APPLE AND FLAKED RICE PUREE
Ingredients
1 apple such as braeburn or cox
1 tbs. flaked rice
water to cover
Peel and core the apple, and roughly chop.
Add the flaked rice, just cover with water and gently simmer for
10 minutes.
Stir frequently as the rice tends to stick to the bottom of the pan,
and add more water if needed.
When cooked, mash with a potato masher or blend with handheld blender.
POTATO PUREE WITH SMOOTH CARROTS
Carrots are sweet and simple tasting to start your baby's taste buds
with and the potato adds those much needed carbohydrates.
Ingredients:
2 medium carrots
1 medium potato
Top and tail and peel the carrot, and roughly chop, place in a small
pan.
Peel the potato, roughly chop and add to the carrot. Cover with water
and simmer for 15 minutes or until soft.
Drain off half the cooking water (reserving the drained water) and
blend with a hand held blender, adding more cooking liquid if needed,
until you have a soft smooth consistency.
If using a potato masher or ricer, drain all the cooking water and
reserve, mash well until lump-free and then add cooking liquid until
a smooth soft consistency.
Serve your baby the desired amount, store a little in the fridge
for another meal and freeze the remainder in ice cube trays.
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