The first of two new baby foods I tried: sweet potato and spinach
Adventures in baby feeding update—Ella loves food! All kinds! So I have started to experiment more with what I feed her. To start, I have been adding either cinnamon or a homemade curry powder to her foods, fruits, veggies and meats. She has loved them both, even though the curry powder is a bit spicy. I figured if my father was able to eat those spices as a baby, so could Ella, and it gives me a way to change things up really easily.
I really wanted to make some foods with spinach in them because spinach is really high in iron (and babies lose their natural supply of iron at 6 months old) and it is in season. I took a stab at making sweet potato (a binding food) with spinach (a mover), and turkey breast with spinach (mover), carrots and parnsips (binders).
Photos, recipes and tips after the jump!
For the first recipe, I sauteed a little onion in some oil until soft, then added sweet potato and turkey stock. The mix simmered until the potatoes were almost soft, then I added in some washed and roughly chopped fresh spinach. After a few minutes, the whole shebang was pureed in the food processor.
My slightly chunky sweet potato and spinach baby food.
You might notice that this baby food is a bit chunkier than the first baby food I made. I read in one of my baby food books that between 6 and 8 months, you can experiment giving the baby chunkier food to encourage them to chew. Well, as always, I’m a bit overzealous and this was a bit too chunky for Ella to eat straight up. She choked when she ate it, not really knowing what to do. So to save the food, I started mixing a little of it in with more smooth food, and she ate it up. I’ve slowly been upping the amount of the new food with the old, and she is starting to get used to chewing more. Whew. Saved that one.
For the turkey, I poached the breast, root vegetables and leeks in turkey stock, then added spinach at the end to blanch.
The pureed turkey, spinach and root vegetables.
So in this recipe, I used a higher ratio of turkey to vegetables, making for a meatier, chunkier puree. Ella could handle this level of chunk, but just to be safe, I serve it to her with some smoother pureed vegetables. If you wanted to make this for a younger baby, just use a half a turkey breast, and double up the root vegetables, maybe add a sweet potato in there for added creaminess.
: Baby sweet potatoes and spinach
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and smalled diced
- 1 bunch of spinach, washed, stems removed and roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 cups turkey stock (can also use water or another liquid)
- Saute the onions in the oil over medium heat until soft and translucent. Add in the sweet potato and turkey stock and simmer until potatoes are almost soft. Add in the spinach and cook for two minutes, until the spinach is just wilted. Remove from heat.
- Strain the mixture, saving the stock. Puree the vegetables in a food processor, adding turkey stock as needed to thin it out.
: Baby turkey with leek, spinach and root vegetables
- 1 turkey breast
- 1 leek, sliced and soaked in water
- 2 carrots, peeled and small diced
- 1 parsnip, peeled and small diced
- 1 bunch of spinach, washed, stems removed and roughly chopped
- 3 cups turkey stock (or another liquid like water)
- Poach the turkey breast, leeks, and root vegetables in the turkey stock over medium low heat. When turkey is almost finished, add in the spinach and cook until just wilted.
- Strain the mixture, saving the stock. Puree the meat and vegetables in a food processor, using turkey stock as needed to thin it out.
~LTG!
