How to Make Baby Food

One of the most frequent requests that I have gotten over on Instagram is sharing how I make homemade baby food. I’ve made homemade baby food for all three of my kids and it’s been so easy. Now, I know that not everyone gives their babies pureed foods, and that is perfectly fine. Baby led weaning has become very popular in recent years and essentially skips pureed baby food and allows babies to feed themselves table food from the start. I encourage all of you to talk to your pediatrician before feeding your babies solid food to determine what is right for them. Personally, we have done a mix of baby led weaning and purees with our kids, and switched to more table food and less purees as they have gotten older. There’s also nothing wrong with store-bought baby food; there are lots of healthy options from great brands available. But if you’re interested in how to make baby food yourself, keep reading!

We have started all of our kids on solid food at 6 months with purees, and as they’ve gotten older introduced more little bits of food that they can feed themselves. That way by their first birthdays, they’ve been able to mostly feed themselves. I still find myself pureeing up some vegetables here and there to put in reusable pouches to take on the go!

Where to Start

We’ve always given our kids avocado as their first food, then done the orange vegetables like sweet potato, squash, and carrot. Then move into the green ones: peas, zucchini, green beans, spinach, broccoli, and kale are all regular baby foods I make. When your baby is first starting out, you don’t want to give more than one food at a time to make sure your baby doesn’t  have any allergies. After your baby has had multiple foods, you can start mixing them together. I don’t make any purees for my kids with fruit in them. I exclusively give them vegetable purees for a while, and when I introduce fruit I cut it into tiny pieces to let them feed themselves. They love fruit with its natural sweetness, and encouraging them to develop their fine motor skills by picking it up themselves is a huge win. All you need to get started with making baby food is a pot with a steamer basket, a high-speed blender or a food processor, and ice cube trays.

Instructions

1. Prepare your vegetables for steaming by washing and peeling them and cutting into large chunks. The larger they are, the longer they will take to steam. You can also roast your vegetables prior to pureeing, but I steam most of my vegetables with the exception of butternut squash. If you’re wondering how many vegetables to use, it’s up to you! As your baby gets older and eats more food you may prefer making larger batches of food.
2. Steam your vegetables in a steamer basket until very tender. If you’re going to be using greens like spinach or kale, add these after the firmer vegetables are tender to allow them to wilt. This will only take a few minutes, so I like to add my leafy greens at the end of the steaming process. Softer vegetables like zucchini or yellow squash also take less time to steam, so I add them after the firmer vegetables (such as sweet potato or carrots) have been steaming for a while.
3. Transfer the vegetables to the blender or food processor and add water (or broth) and puree until smooth. If using beans, drain and rinse canned beans and transfer to the blender as well. I usually use half a can of beans for each large batch of baby food and tend to use chickpeas or white beans.
4. Spoon pureed baby food into ice cube trays to freeze. Once frozen solid, pop out and keep in large freezer bags and thaw when you need them. That way you aren’t making baby food every day and can make it in large batches.

Favorite Baby Food Combinations

While you start with pureeing a single vegetable, once you know your baby doesn’t have allergies you can start making combinations. As my kids have gotten older, I use chicken broth instead of water in the baby food for extra nutrients, and start adding beans for protein. Some vegetables like zucchini and yellow squash are very watery, and make a smoother puree when blended with a starchy vegetable like sweet potato or butternut squash. Things like spinach and kale are also better blended with a starchy vegetable. Again, there aren’t any combinations with fruit here because I tend to cut food into small pieces to encourage fine motor skills to develop. My kids do eat plain Greek yogurt that I sweeten naturally with no-sugar added applesauce (homemade or store-bought).

•  sweet potato, zucchini, spinach
•  peas, carrot
•  butternut squash, carrot, chickpea
•  sweet potato, broccoli, white bean
•  butternut squash, kale, yellow squash
•  sweet potato, beet, chickpea
•  broccoli, sweet potato, carrot
•  butternut squash, green bean, white bean

I hope that your baby enjoys homemade baby food as much as ours have, and I hope that this helps making it an easier process for you. Making a large batch and freezing it saves a lot of time and effort.

 

Like what you see? Pin it here!