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Roasted veg puree
Whilst making our dinner, roasted veg and halloumi cheese, I made the above for Annabel. I took a handful of chopped up veg; courgettes, red and yellow peppers, and a few pieces of red onion. I roasted them for about 30 minutes on a medium heat (for the adults I added olive oil but ommited this for the LO) and then let them cool. Throw it all in the blender and blend until liquid, the courgettes are watery so no need to add any water or milk (but you can do if required).
I have frozen the puree which will keep for a month, a great way to make a quick and easy puree whilst also making an adult meal.
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This is really easy to make and refreshing for the LOs in this heat. Chop one courgette and place in a steamer, you can use a metal colander on top of a pan of boiling water if you don’t have a steamer. Steam the courgette until soft (approx 15-20 minutes), at the same time take a handful of frozen peas and bring to the boil (can put in the water under the colander). Once courgettes softened and the peas cooked sieve to discard water, throw into the blender and liquidise. This will make a about five ice cube sized portions. To add flavour and be more adventurous for older babies try adding a mint leaf.
This is cool and refreshing but very watery so you could add a large boiled potato to thicken it up if desired.
Annabel loved this, and looked really cute with a bright green face.
Thank you Nicola! I have been looking for ways to experiment with different flavous for my LO who I have only recently started to wean! I had a go at the courgette and pea with great 'green face' sucess!! I look forwrod to more posts!
Baked Plum Puree
This is a puree to add to other food/puree to enhance flavour or sweeten. I would add it to baby porridge, baby rice, yogurts or fruits such as pear, apple, melon, or banana purees. A little bit sweet to give on its own.
Clean one plum, remove stone. Bake on a medium heat for about twenty minutes, this makes the plum very soft and almost become a syrup. Let cool and then mash or put in a blender, I just mashed mine and got the appropriate consistency for an early weaning dish. Keep in the fridge for aout 3-5 days and add to other dishes as required, you will only need to add a few drops. We added it to porridge and Annabel loved it.
Can also be frozen for one month. Please note picture is of two baked plums.
Enjoy and let me know if you try it. x
My LO used to love this recipe for beetroot, potato and cheddar puree, you can also fork mash it for older LOs.
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees then trim and scrub 300g of beetroot and 2 small potatoes (about 200g).
Put the beetroot and potatoes in an ovenproof dish, cover with foil and bake for around 1 and a half hours, or until you can put a knife through them easily.
As soon as the potato is cool enough to touch, peel off the skin and mash the flesh in a bowl.
When the beetroot is cool enough to handle, peel away the skin, you may need a small knife. (you could peel all the skin off the veg before you cook it, but it retains more flavour to cook them with skins on!)
Chop the beetroot roughly then puree in a blender with about 50ml water.
Combine the beetroot and potato and add 50g of finly grated cheddar (if your baby is over 6 months, otherwise omit the cheese!)
Mix/blend until evenly combined. This makes about 500ml.
Another simpler one is parsnip and apple!
Peel, trim and quarter 2 medium sized parsnips, cutting out any hard woody core then roughly chop.
Do the same with 4 medium sized sweet dessert apples.
Put the apples and parsnips in a small pan with enough water to half cover them,
bring to the boil, then cover and reduce the heat and simmer for about 6-8 mins, stirring a couple of times, until tender.
Tip content of the pan, veg, fruit and liquid into a blender and puree.
If you like you can adjust the texture, and thin down individual portions with a little milk just before serving. This will make around 400ml
sweet potato, carrot and red lentil
ingredients
medium sweet potato, 2 carrots, two tablespoons red lentils, half qnd onion, one piece of garlic and similar size piece of ginger. boil all together in boiling water until carrots are cooked (around 10-15mins).
drain, but keep the water as it can be used to thin out mixture if required or use as stock for another meal.
add one teaspoon of garam masala and mix.
blend with soup blending attachment or in hand blender. can make it as thin or as lumpy as you want, if you want to keep some lumpy bits, after draining keep some carrots aside before blending.
Avocado and Kiwi
Ingredients
Half a ripe avocado
1 ripe kiwi fruit
Mash the avocado well with fork. Peel and mash the kiwi. Push the kiwi through a sieve to remove the pips, then mix with the avocado.
Moong dhal khichadi
Ingredients
Rice - 1/2 cup
Moong dhal/lentils- 1/4 cup
butter/oil - 1tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1tsp (optional)
garam masala- 1tsp (optional)
Turmeric powder - a pinch
wash rice and dhal in water and keep it aside. Heat butter/oil in a pan and add cumin seeds, turmeric powder, rice, and moong dhal. Stir-fry for a 30 seconds. Add water and garam masala and bring rice to boil and reduce the heat and simmer and cook till very soft (10 mins approximately)
Loving these recipes!
Cheesy scrambled eggs and beans
Lightly whisk 1 egg with a dash of milk. Put a tiny amount of butter into a small frying pan, melt over a low heat, and add egg mixture. Cook slowly, stirring occassionally, until thoroughly cooked and remove from heat. Stir in a couple of teaspoons of baked beans (without the sauce) and a couple of dollops of cream cheese.
Serve once at right temperature! For a more cheesy taste, add some grated cheese. You could also add small amounts of mild spices, just so your LO experiences different tastes.
Update - I added chopped veg (instead of the beans) last time I made this - went down really well!
Fantastic receipes here, anyone else got any other recipes that your little ones enjoy?
Thanks everyone for adding your recipes, I'm going to try Harjeet's carrot, lentil and swet potato dish next week. Please keep your recipes coming in maybe with age and stage of weaning that you cooked/recommend them for. Feel free to feedback if you have tried any of the posted dishes, be great to hear what real Mum's and babies thought of them.
Thanks
Nicola x x
Spiced turkey with roasted peppers and spinach cous cous.
I made this for Mia today (me and her older sister also had a tweaked version of it too!) and it can also be pureed down into a textured puree for younger LOs.
Slice some orange and yellow pepper and roast in the oven until flesh is soft and skin starts to blister.
Take some diced turkey breast and marinade with a little pureed garlic and a red thai paste pot for babies (to save time) or your own choice of herbs and spices, you can either cook in an covered oven proof dish (so meat is more tender) or cook in a wok.
put a little cous cous in a pan with a handful of chopped spinach, then add half a baby stock cube mixed with use enough boiling water to cover the couscous, cover the pan and leave on a very low heat until cous cous has swelled and spinach is wilted.
Let it cool a while then serve!
Curried Parsnips and Apple
This dish is really easy and a great way to add a little spice to your little one's palate. I gave it to Annabel just before she was six months old as an early weaning dish.
-Take one medium sized parsnip, an apple (cooking or non-cooking), half an onion and one to two small potatoes, and finally a sprinkle of curry powder.
-Slice the onion, throw into a hot pan (can add a little butter if desired)
-Wash then peel and slice the parsnip, apple and potatoes, mix in a bowl and lightly sprinkle with the curry powder (you can add as little or as much as desired - I just added a small amount). Add this to the onions and pour in cold water until all the veg is covered.
-Bring to the boil and cook until soft.
-Remove excess water and liquidise to desired consistency. This will make enough for about three meals, it can freeze for up to one month or keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Butternut squash with orange puree
This dish smells lovely, it reminds me of Christmas but can be enjoyed at anytime of the year.
You will need one medium sized butternut squash, a large orange and some water.
-Pre-heat the oven to a medium setting (approx 170 degrees)
-Slice the butternut squash in half, remove the seeds. Place in a deep oven dish with the skin facing the down. Add half the orange, sliced, and enough water to fill the dish to about 5cm deep.
- Bake in the oven (the smell will be amazing) for about an hour or until the squash is soft.
-Remove the flesh of the squash and place in the blender dish, squeeze the juice from the baked orange, and add a tablespoon of the excess water if any is left. Throw in two peeled segments of the saved orange (if doing BLW, your LO can suck on the remainder of the fruit) and blend to your desired consistency.
This was given to Annabel in the early stages of weaning, but it can be mashed or made into a soup for older children.
Cheesy wheat free pasta with sweetcorn, carrot and baked coley. This is a simple and cheap dish to make and can be made into a puree too, omit fish if LO is too young.
wrap a small coley fillet loosely in foil place on a baking tray and cook at 180 degress for 20mins, check centre is thoroughly cooked before serving.
boil a small portion of pasta (any type you like) enough for a couple of servings
chop 2 small carrots and boil until tender, adding as much sweetcorn as you llke, I use cartoned sweetcorn in water so put in about a 3rd of a pack in, if not more as my LO loves it!
drain both pasta and veg and add to the same pan on a low heat, stir in a tbsp of ricotta and a small matchstick box sized piece of cheddar and stir until chesse is melted and evenly distributed throughout, add a pinch of green herbs.
flake or cut fish into manageable pieces and add to pasta and serve, or blend to desired consistancy if making a puree.
For dessert I made oven baked summer fruits and served with a little organic frozen yoghurt.
take 2 peaches, a big handful of ripe cherries and 10 strawberries, wash, hull and destoned them, cutting the peaches into quarters and the rest of the fruit into halfs.
Add all the fruit to an ovenproof dish add a little cinnamon and bake on medium heat until flesh is soft and juices start to become slightly syrupy.
once cooked and cooled slightly remove the skins from the peaches.
serve with homemade or ready made organic frozen yoghurt.
If making your own start making around 4 hours before serving. take some baby/kids yoghurts sweetened with fruit juice or use plain yoghurt and add fruit puree to it.
place into a small plastic tub and place in freezer, keep coming back to check the mixture around every half hour (longer if making a big batch, 45 mins-1 hr) and use a fork to mix it to break up ice crystals until mixture is firm but not hard. if you have an ice cream maker then its even easier!
the fruit can also be pureed.
Courgette and feta nibbles
1 slice of bread, cut into small cubes
140g courgette grated (approx 1 medium sized courgette)
70g feta cheese, crumbled finely 2 eggs (whisked)
black pepper to season (optional) half lemon (optional)
chives (optional)
preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Oil a silicone mini muffin/small cupcake tin with olive oil. whisk the eggs in a bowl, add pepper, then add courgette and mix. squeeze lemon and chives into mixture, add crumbled feta cheese and cubed bread and mix well. Fill each hole with mixture.
Bake for 16 minutes or until firm and well browned.
These can be served for lunch, dinner or as finger food.
If your little one does not like textures, the courgettes can be blended and the bread can be made into bread crumbs .
Garlic, Lemon, Spinach& Coriander Chicken with steamed broccoli and peppers. This is a nice light summery dish that can also be pureed.
Roughly chop a handful or washed spinach and coriander and add to mini blender along with a squeeze of lemon a little minced garlic and a dash of olive oil. blend to a paste.
Take a good sized chicken breast and coat in herb mixture and place on a baking tray cooking at 190 degrees for around 20 mins.
Steam half a pepper (chopped) and a few florets of broccoli until tender.
Once chicken is cooled slice into managable pieces for your LO and serve along with the veg, otherwise puree to desired consistency, thin with water if necessary.
Garlic Mushrooms on toast
1 clove of garlic
8 - 10 medium closed cup mushrooms
2 tspns marg/butter
sprig of thyme
1/4 tub cream cheese
Chop/crush the garlic into a small pan with the marg/butter, and start to cook. Clean and roughly chop the mushrooms and add to the pan. Cook on a medium heat for about 3-5mins, and add the cream cheese and thyme. Remove from heat once cheese has melted and pop into a blender.
Blend to the required consistency
Lightly toast a piece of bread (I like wholemeal), spread a good layer of the pate onto the toast and cut into fingers (removing the crusts is wanted).
If there is any pate left either pop in the fridge tomorrow or enjoy yourself!
Baked pears, raspberries and blueberry puree.
This is a stage 1 weaning dish, I add it to porridge in the mornings or give by itself as a dessert.
Take one ripe pear, wash and cut into chunks. Place in an oven dish with a handful of washed fresh raspberries ( frozen ones can also be used) and half a handful of washed blueberries (again frozen ones can be used). Place in the oven and bake at medium-high heat for about 15-20 minutes until the fruit has softened. Once cooled, mash or place in blender and blend to the desired consistency.
Annabel loves this flavour and it is really simple.