I just found this post sitting in my drafts from months and months ago…how unfortunate! But better late than never…

It has been a while since I last wrote about fruit puree ideas for your little one.  I blame it on a busy summer, and the fact I’d rather be sitting outside all day long than sitting at a computer.  And perhaps be sipping on a iced coffee or strawberry lemonade.

While fruit purees were a great introduction into solids for my daughter, I tried to focus on vegetables.  It was easy to get the munchkin hooked on sweet foods – vegetables were the true challenge.

Here are some tips I followed when making vegetable purees:

1. When steaming veggies, I would first add some crushed fresh ginger into the steaming water – an easy way to get flavour and hopefully some nutritional benefits into the steamed veggies. Using broth or other herbs and spices (such as basil or cinnamon) also worked really well.
2. I always steamed vegetables separately and froze them into cubes that way.  This allowed me to pick and choose veggie combinations when it came to mealtime, instead of having the same old combo every day.
3. Once I was ready to add more fats into meals, I cooked some vegetables in ghee before pureeing – collard greens were a great example and my daughter loved it.
4. Avocado is a great fat to add into veggies, but keep in mind that too much avocado can constipate your little one.  Make sure the avocados are very, very ripe (and yes, I realize that avocado is a fruit – but just work with me here).
5. I created purees of stronger tasting vegetables such as radishes and turnips as well – when serving, I would mix them with bland veggies such as spinach or carrots – my daughter gobbled these up!
6. Legumes are also a great option to mix into veggies – a quick option was to add hummus to veggies (although if your child is prone to allergies, be careful due to the tahini in hummus).

When visiting friends or family on vacation, I would pick up a pack of frozen mixed vegetables and steam up a batch – yes, it broke my rule about having different combinations, but was an easy way to have homemade food available while on vacation.

My daughter got her teeth pretty young, so purees didn’t last very long for us – she was soon eyeing our meals and moved on.  But it was a fun stretch to experiment with different
(and purposely give her things we knew she wouldn’t like just to see her reaction)!