A Guide to Making Homemade Purées For Your Baby

When Calvin first started solid foods around six months old, I knew that I wanted to give him purées and that I did not want to have to pay for prepackaged ones. Here I’ll go over how I made his very first foods from scratch during his naps.

Thanks for checking out this post! If this is your first time reading this post, I suggest reading it all the way through. If you are returning to this post to refresh equipment or how to cook a certain food, refer to this table of contents to skip to the appropriate section of the blog.

WHAT FOODS I CHOSE TO PURÉE

One of the biggest appeals to making my own baby food was being able to choose and know exactly what my baby was eating. I knew that the majority of his nutritional needs were being met by his formula, but it was important to me to introduced him to a variety of produce (fruits and veggies) early. We did a combination of purées and finger foods, so the batch I first prepared lasted until Calvin turned one:

  • Apple
  • Pear
  • Banana
  • Avocado
  • Baby carrot
  • Peas
  • Blueberry
  • Raspberry
  • Sweet potato
  • Butternut squash
  • Zucchini

I referred to The Big Book of Organic Baby Food whenever I had questions about cook times or needed ideas for things to serve my kid. I didn’t follow it exactly, but it has a lot of great information.

THE EQUIPMENT I USE

You don’t need a bunch of fancy equipment to make your own baby food. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can roast, bake, and boil your foods until soft. If you don’t have a chef’s knife, any sharp knife will do. No peeler? Use a small, non-serrated kitchen knife. No magic bullet? Any stand or immersion blender with works. If you need to purchase one item off of this list, I would suggest the silicone ice cube trays. These things are amazing for freezing baby food and it is so easy to get the cubes out when frozen. Here is everything I use when I make baby food:

HOW TO COOK AND PURÉE EACH FOOD

Here we go! I’m going to touch on each food I mentioned above. I’ll explain how I cook it and purée it to the right consistency. Once I’ve gone through each food, I’ll explain how I portion them out and freeze the food so I can thaw cubes as needed for up to six months! If you are preparing all of these foods on the same day, make sure to have some gallon sized freezer ziploc bags ready. As you finish each purée, pour it into a gallon bag, rinse out the blender, and move on to the next.

BANANAS AND AVOCADOS

These are the two easiest foods to prepare for your baby because as long as they are ripe, there is no cooking. You can just peel and mash. I recommend always keeping one or both of these foods on hand for your little ones.

APPLES AND PEARS

First things first, wash your fruit and remove the produce stickers. Next, use your peeler to remove the skins from both the apples and pears. Next, you’ll want to cut both fruits into chunks but keep them seperate. They look almost identical when peeled and chunked. Make sure to remove the core and seeds from the apples and throw them away.

Add a cup of water and both fruits to your Instant Pot, keeping them separate. I did this by adding the pears to the Instant Pot, then placing a steamer basket on top of them filled with the apples. Put the lid on the pot and turn it to ‘sealed’ . Press the “Pressure Cook” button on the pot, set it to “High”, and set the timer to 4 minutes. Once the cook cycle completes, wait 5 minutes before releasing the pressure.

Once your apples and pears are cooked, remove them from the pot and allow them to cool. One fruit at a time, throw them into your blender and blend them up! If you have a really young baby, add a bit of water to make the purée looser and smoother. If you have an older baby, don’t add any water to make more of an applesauce texture.

BABY CARROTS, ZUCCHINI, AND FROZEN PEAS

First, wash the baby carrots and break up the peas if they are all frozen together. Peel the zucchini and cut into chunks small enough to fit into the Instant Pot.

Add a cup of water to the bottom of the Instant Pot. Add a pyrex bowl to the Instant Pot. Add the carrots to the pot all around and under the bowl. Fill the bowl with frozen peas. Add the zucchini chunks on top. Replace lid on pot and set to “Sealing”. Press the “Pressure Cook” button. Ensure the pot is set to “High” and set the timer for 6 minutes. At the end of the cycle, do a “Quick Release” (immediately turn the dial to “Venting” to release all steam pressure).

For a young baby, add each vegetable one-by-one to a blender. Add a little bit of water and blend. If the mixture is too thick, add more water and continue blending.

For a baby that is a bit older, you can quarter the baby carrots lengthwise to create a finger food, and blend the zucchini and peas without additional water to create more of a mash than a purée.

FROZEN BLUEBERRIES AND RASPBERRIES

The nice thing about frozen berries is that they don’t need to be cooked before blending, only thawed. I got my blueberries and raspberries out in the morning while making my smoothie. Once the berries were thawed, I just blended them with a bit of water until they were the consistency I wanted.

Blended berries are a little watery, so these are great to add to yogurt, oatmeal, rice cereal, or other thicker purées for extra flavor and nutrients. Applesauce and pear-sauce mix well with everything.

SWEET POTATO

Wash the sweet potato thoroughly, then stab it several times with a dinner fork. Leave the skin on.

Add one cup of water and the sweet potato(es) to the Instant Pot. Replace lid on pot and set to “Sealing”. Press the “Pressure Cook” button. Ensure the pot is set to “High” and set the timer for 10 minutes. Once the timer goes off, wait 5 minutes before releasing the remaining pressure.

Remove the potato(es) from the pot and cut in half lengthwise. You can remove the skins by scooping the flesh out with a spoon, using a peeler, or peeling the skin back with your fingers. Once the skin has been removed, cut the potato into smallish chunks and add to the blender.

For a young baby, add water to blend up smooth. You are probably going to need more water than you think if you want a smooth texture.

For an older baby, add a bit of olive oil, ground flax seed, and garlic powder to the blender. Start with 1/4 cup of water and blend. You want more of a mash consistency for older babies, so only add enough water to get all of the chunks blended nicely.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH

First, fair warning. Butternut squash doesn’t smell delicious when it is being cooked. But Calvin liked the taste fine, so I didn’t worry about it.

Okay, first you need to cut your butternut squash in half lengthwise. These suckers are hard, so be prepared to put some muscle into it. Scoop the seeds out with a spoon and throw away. If the halves will fit in your Instant Pot, great. If not, cut them shorter and throw the smaller chunks in with a cup of water. Replace lid on pot and set to “Sealing”. Press the “Pressure Cook” button. Ensure the pot is set to “High” and set the timer for 9 minutes. Once the timer goes off, wait 5 minutes, then release the remaining pressure.

Remove the squash from the Instant Pot and scoop out the now-soft filling with a spoon. Combine with water and blend until smooth.

PORTIONING, FREEZING, STORING, AND THAWING PURÉES

Now that you have all of your purées made and separated into gallon bags, it’s time to portion and freeze them. Any purées that were prepared from frozen foods should be refrozen first. Here are the steps to freeze:

  1. Select a bag of purée. Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag. Squeeze the purée into the silicone ice cube tray. Fill each cube about 3/4 of the way full.
  2. Place the lids on the trays and the silicone trays in the freezer. Freeze overnight or until completely solid.
  3. Once the purées are frozen, pop them out of the trays and put each type of food into its own ziploc bag. I like the quart sized freezer bags. Write what the food is and what month/year it was frozen. Then place the bag of cubes back into the freezer.
  4. When it’s time to feed your baby, choose some cubes. Each one is about an ounce of food. Thaw whatever you’re feeding your child in the microwave and bon appetit! You can mix and match cubes, or throw a frozen cube in a small plastic container to feed to your child later. I also like to use refillable pouches for my own foods. I can put a couple cubes of food in a pouch in the morning, toss it in my diaper bag, and give it Cal later in the afternoon as a snack.

If you find that you have too much purée to fit in your trays, some of it one day, put the excess in the freezer, and freeze it the next day when you are dividing frozen food cubes into quart sized baggies.

Now that Calvin is older, I don’t rely on freezing my food because he eats much more. Last time I prepared him some food, I made applesauce, sweet potato mash, and steamed baby carrots. I poured the apple sauce and mash into quart sized mason jars and put them in the fridge. Then I quartered the carrots lengthwise and put them in a glass container as well. All three of these things are great for me to reach for between meals and bottles when Cal needs a snack.

That’s how I make baby food for my little guy! I’ve actually loved doing it and I’ve never had to try and do it while he’s awake. I’m able to get everything done while he sleeps! I’m even able to run the blender a whole bunch because he sleeps with a white noise machine and can’t hear it. Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for reading!

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