Making your own baby food is easier than you might think! In doing so, you can be confident you’re giving your baby the best and healthiest ingredients available. All you need is fresh produce, a saucepan, and a blender or food processor to get started.
Cook times and methods will differ slightly depending on the produce, but you can use this simple process to prepare most fruits, vegetables and legumes for your baby.
Prep
Wash or peel the produce you’d like to use for your puréed baby food. Baked apples, mashed sweet potatoes and cooked carrots are great first foods. Cut the food into small pieces.
Cook
Steam or bake the food until it’s very tender. We don’t recommend boiling your fruits and veggies as it reduces nutrient content. Foods must be cooked well. They are done when they can be pierced or mashed easily with a fork.
Purée
Process or mash the cooked food until it’s smooth. You want your baby to have food that is soft and velvety in texture. You may need to add water or milk to some foods to get the right consistency. Although water will slightly dilute the food’s nutritional value, the difference is not significant.
Strain
Spoon the food through a sieve to smooth the lumps and remove unprocessed parts of the produce (this step may not be required depending on the produce).
Portion
Spoon the purée into single-serving dishes or storage containers; serve the purée to your baby. Store it promptly for later use. We recommend using the “ice cube tray” method. The concept is simple: make large quantities of basic food purées using a standard blender or food processor then freeze it in single-serving ice cube trays. With this method, you only need to make baby food once, maybe twice, per week. Over time you build up a large variety of single serving baby food cubes in the freezer, which stay fresh for up to two months.
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