Raw Nutrition for Infants: "Baby's First Salad" | Fruits & Veggies Monday #37
Does baby have to miss out on summer salads and picnics galore, whilst Mammy and Daddy have all the fun?
Absolutely not!
As a parent you're super careful when preparing baby's meals, taking care to minimise choking hazards, and being mindful to give nice soft foods for gumming. You can't exactly hand your baby a bowl of raw veg and chickpeas to munch on... But you can blend it all up into a tasty puree and give your baby the benefit of all that beautiful fresh nutritious planty goodness!!!
Raw carrots, skin and all? No problem! Raw butternut squash, raw broccoli, peppers, cherry tomatoes, spinach...? Yes please Mama!
Ingredients (I strongly recommend organic for babies):
1/3 raw carrot
Small chunk raw butternut squash
Handful spinach
1/2 avocado
Small chunk red pepper
Small chunk raw zucchini (courgette)
1 banana
A few cherry tomatoes
Handful chickpeas*
Millet / Quinoa / Amaranth / Couscous (optional)
* I always have a stash of cooked-from-dried beans in little jars in the freezer, which is super handy if you do a lot of vegan/vegetarian cooking. Please see my suggestions on the easiest way to batch cook beans.
Chop the carrot and butternut squash into small pieces and put into a blender with a little bit of water (to help it blend up nice and smooth). Blend these first, as they're the hardest and we want to make sure it's thoroughly pureed and no small hard pieces remaining.
Add the other ingredients and blend to a beautiful smooth puree.
You can either leave the puree as it is and feed to the baby, or if they are old enough to handle grain you can mix some in.
Serve it in your baby's favourite bowl!
Now baby can enjoy a nutritious raw salad whenever you do!
Eat at home... or take out in the fresh air for a picnic...
At least it gives baby a much tastier alternative to sand...!
Many thanks to @lenasveganliving for continuing to host this wonderful weekly contest! For inspiration and details how to join in, please see Lena's post here.
To find out what my "Make It Healthy Project" is all about, and how you can be involved in growing this project, please click here.
Really clever idea. Taking an already appetizing looking salad and making it edible for infants! Awesome photos too btw.
Thanks so much! Even when baby 'slop' doesn't look that appetising, the least we can do is make it tasty and nutritious for them! ;-)
Woo amigo una ensalada de vegetales se ve muy rica y nutritiva saludos desde venezuela
Siempre me gusta darle a mi bebé toda la nutrición que pueda ... ¡ayudarlo a crecer fuerte y fuerte! Gracias por tu amable comentario :-)
Genius! Nutrition-packed and delicious at the same time - lucky baby :) Love how the banana has found the way in the dish.
Hehe, yeah, I find that adding a bit of sweetness to baby food helps it go down easier :-) He rarely refused food so I must be doing something right!!! ;-)
How delicious and highly nutritious this baby food is, wow! You should write a baby recipe book Dear Joanna.............you have such an amazing repertoire of recipes for babies. And your boy is so adorable 🌸💖🌸
Aw many thanks for your lovely words Lena! He is adorable, I totally agree ;-) I hadn't thought of doing a baby recipe book, but that's an idea to keep in mind for the future! Would love to show other parents how easy it is to get nutrition into a baby... with just a little creative thinking!
You are most welcome Dear Joanna and I am happy you are open to that book idea. Maybe when your boy gets little bit older XOXO
Yum yum yum ... I look so tasty and healthy I wish I could eat that.
I also had a recent blog on fruits and veggies monday have a look over it
Thank you @arpitpaliwal
I love it sooo much when people make healthy food for their children. This thrills me. I have only known children that wouldn't eat a vegetable or most fruits even if you paid them.
Wonderful post!
A few months ago I was talking to a lady in a shop who told me she doesn't eat fruit & veg and never has. I think my jaw literally dropped!!! I think if a child has good nutrition and introduced to a wide variety of things when young, they won't grow up being so picky. But I've never given my son anything with sugar, so fruit is a treat for him! :-)
It's crazy to hear such things. When a kid gets nutritious food at the beginning of life, they should always want it. Unfortunately people are convinced by restaurants kids menus, that chicken nuggets fries and hot dogs are food for children.
Ugh, I shudder at the thought of chicken nuggets and hot dogs! Eeek! ;-)
I saw this the other day but did not have time to comment on it, baby's first salad looks so divine it's good enough for me too hehe! I have no idea why ppl buy over priced and toxic baby food when this is just so easy!!!!
Thanks very much :-) Yes I agree, I never saw the point buying expensive organic baby food when you can blend up your own! Even with the organic baby food I still wonder how fresh the ingredients are. But this way you can make baby a salad fresh from the garden/greenhouse if you want!