Summer is hereeeee, bringing with it the best fruits ever! I whizzed this up for bubba but this can also be used for a whole bunch of Christmas dishes. You can serve it warm alongside roast pork, or drizzled cold over your pavlova/Chrissy trifle!
Ingredients
Flesh of 1 mango
Flesh of 1 peach (I used white, you can use yellow too. Or even nectarines)
Method
– Pop fruit in your Thermomix bowl.
– Whizz for 3 secs/speed 7.
– Dunzo!
I’ve now done two versions of this, a raw puree and cooked puree. Bub demolishes both, but I do like the cooked version a bit more as the flavour is more intense, This is great for the whole family too, just chuck some into a serve of Greek yoghurt for a healthy flavoured treat!
Ingredients
1 pear, peeled, cored and cut into chunks (any variety should work, I used beurre bosc for mine)
1 punnet blueberries
Method
– Pop your fruit in the TMX bowl and chop for 5 secs/speed 8.
– Cook for 12 mins/100 degrees/speed 1
– Blend for 3 secs/speed 8.
Pureed zucchini is another favourite in this household. I used to blend it up really smoothly but now I make it a little more lumpy so bub can get used to the texture. Three zucchinis normally make at least 10-12 servings.
Ingredients
3 zucchinis, peeled and cut into chunks
Method
– Throw your zucchini into the TMX bowl and chop for 5 secs/speed 5.
– Cook for 9 mins/100 degrees/speed 1.
– The zucchini should already be a nice, slightly coarse mix and ready to go for slightly older bubs. If a super-smooth texture is needed like the image below, puree for 5 secs/speed 8.
I watched an episode of Man Finds Food recently and he featured an Aussie pie in the heart of Boston which was served with a side of mushy peas (yeah, not so Aussie). I then remembered I had some leftover frozen peas in the freezer, so I thought I’d introduce that to bub!
Ingredients
200g frozen peas
A handful of fresh mint leaves or a teaspoon of dried mint leaves (optional)
30g water/stock
Extra boiled water/stock
Method
– Pop peas, mint and 30g liquid in your TMX.
– Cook for 12mins/100 degrees/speed 1.
– Puree for 8 seconds/speed 8
– Check consistency, add more liquid and puree if desired.
You can also serve this to adults as a side dish, although I must admit it would be totally more appealing for our palates with a dash of cream and/or butter 🙂
There are quite a few spelling variations for this dish – dal, dahl, dhal – around. Even trusty Wikipedia couldn’t point me in the right direction this time!
Anyway.
I want to start getting my daughter used to stronger flavours. Lentil is a good food for under-ones so I thought that I might try my grandmother’s dhal recipe in the TMX. I recommend keeping it overnight or longer before serving to let the flavours develop and it’s a great one to freeze. You can add a range of veggies – carrot, cauliflower, potato – when you’re heating the dhal up if you need a more substantial meal. You can also add some fresh chilli with the onion, garlic and ginger if you want a spicier dish, but I think I might hold off a bit longer before introducing chilli to the little one!
Ingredients
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 onion
1.5-2cm knob of ginger (you can increase/decrease the quantity according to your taste, this amount adds a fairly subtle flavour)
20g olive oil
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp mustard seeds (I like the texture the seeds lend to the dhal so I put 1.5 tbsps in)
200g red lentils, washed
800g water
1-1.5 tsp salt (to taste)
Method
– Throw garlic, onion and ginger into the TMX bowl, and chop for 4 secs/speed 6.
– Add oil and turmeric powder, cook for 5 mins/100 degrees/speed 1.
– Add mustard seeds, lentils and water, give the mix a good stir then cook for 20 mins/100 degrees/reverse/speed 1. I like to pause and stir the dhal a bit halfway through to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom (I was scarred after the Thermomix consultant blackened my bowl when cooking risotto at my demonstration. Perhaps a bit more practice for her, methinks.) but you don’t have to do this.
– Remove portions for bub (if applicable), then add salt to taste. Dunzo! A healthy meal for the family.
I fell prey to the fancy Le Petit Miam baby yoghurt packaging and bought 6 pouches before I realised how much sugar was packed into those babies. So I decided from that point that any yoghurt flavouring bubba consumes in the early stages of her life would be homemade. I now buy Greek yoghurt and pop some fruit puree into the mix. I haven’t titled this post ‘Baby Food’ because it’s actually a fab healthy option for the rest of the family too!
Strawberries are super cheap at the moment, but the problem is that most of them really aren’t that sweet. So I chucked in an eighth of a watermelon too so it wouldn’t be as sour. The resulting mixture is quite runny, but works well with a good thick Greek yoghurt.
Ingredients
1 punnet strawberries, washed, leaves removed
An eighth of a watermelon, skin removed, cut into chunks (any more than this and the mixture gets a bit too runny.
Method
– Throw fruit into your TMX bowl.
– Whizz for 3 seconds/speed 6.
– Pop into individual serve containers and freeze until use (I use $2 ice cube trays from K-Mart!)
Whaddaya know, bub ADORES broccoli! Which is fab, since it’s pretty cheap right now. I do give her one course of broccoli followed by something sweet and smooth (apple or pear) so that she has textures and flavours from opposite ends of the spectrum.
Ingredient
A head of broccoli, fat stem chopped off, cut into florets
Method
– Pop florets into TMX bowl, and chop for 5 secs/speed 5
– Scrape sides down, and cook for 12 mins/100 degrees/speed 1.
– Check that broccoli is cooked through (i.e. soft but not collapsing). Cook a little bit longer if needed.
– Blend for 8 secs/speed 8.
– Done! Because the texture will still be a bit coarse, you may want to add a splash of cool boiled water when serving to bub. I did this to start off with, but don’t need to anymore.
Sorry, I know these posts are pretty boring! Will get back to more non-baby recipes soon, I promise. In the meantime, I made some pear puree, using Packham pears, which bubba loves. Method is the same as the apple puree I made earlier.
Side note, can anyone suggest green baby purees that bub might like?
Baby puree does NOT a good photo make! But I thought i’d feature at least one fruit and one veggie post until I can start making more interesting mixes. I bought some orange and white sweet potato to whip up and freeze. The white sweet potato turned out a lot starchier than the orange, and bub doesn’t seem to care much for the former.
Ingredients
– Sweet potato (I wouldn’t put more than 2 decent-sized potatoes in the TMX)
– Cool boiled water, approx 50g per 250g of sweet potato
Method
– Peel and cut potatoes into chunks. Pop in TMX bowl.
– Chop for 5 secs/speed 8.
– Add water into bowl, and scrape down the sides.
– Cook for 20 mins/100 degrees/speed 1.
– Scrape down the sides again, then blend for 5 secs/speed 7.
– Cool, then spoon into individual containers/ice cube trays and freeze until use.
Whoa mama, bub is on solids! I started her on rice cereal the day before she turned 5 months, and then busted out the Thermomix to make my first serve of puree. I hope I will be able to maintain this habit of cooking fresh food for her, I don’t really see the point in spending way more for organic fruit and veg but I do want to keep her on home-cooked food as long as I can. I apologise in advance as there will probably be quite a few puree posts coming up, but I’ll try and find some time to do some other recipes too!
Ingredient
5 medium-large red apples (this makes approx. 13 x 2 tbsp serves. I used pink lady, but Fuji or Royal Gala should work too)
Method
– Peel and core apples, cut into quarters. An apple corer and slicer helps massively here!
– Pop into TMX bowl.
– Chop for 10 secs/speed 5. Scrape down the sides.
– Cook for 8 mins/90 degrees/speed 4.
– Scrape down the sides again, and blend for 5-10 secs/speed 8 until desired consistency is achieved.
I’m going to go through the basic single-ingredient purees over the next few weeks to get her used to the different tastes and textures, but I would LOVE to hear about some yummy mixed-ingredient purees in the comments!
