Homemade baby food is super nutritious and a great way to keep your baby healthy! Beets baby food is an easy and nutrient dense food that your baby will love!
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Beets Baby Food
When it comes to our children, we as moms want to give them the best! We want them to be healthy and we want them to have the best start at life possible!
A great way to give your baby the best optimal start is to make your own baby food! Unfortunately store bought baby food can be laden with chemicals and other nasty ingredients.
Making your own baby food fresh is a great way to not only avoid these nasty ingredients, but to give your baby the freshest, most nutritious food possible!
When all four of my children were babies I made my own baby food for them. If you have never done it before, then don’t worry, it’s very easy! I’ll walk you step by step through the entire process:)
And I know it sounds time consuming, but it’s really not. You can make up a whole months worth of baby food in just a few hours!
Beets Baby Food and Nitrates
Beets are an incredibly nutritious food and contain so many good things! However, due to the possibility of beets containing nitrates, I recommend not feeding cooked beets to your baby until at least nine months of age and avoiding raw beets until at least 10 months.
But as with anything else that you feed your baby, be sure to discuss with your pediatrician their recommended age for certain foods.
Also, one more warning before beginning to make your beets baby food is that beets WILL turn your baby’s poop red! This is nothing to be concerned about and is completely normal. However it can be a bit of a shock when you first see it, so just be prepared;) A few hours after eating beets is when it should show up.
How to Make Beets Baby Food
So let’s get started and go make some beets baby food!
The only ingredients that you will need for this recipe are beets, and filtered or reverse osmosis water.
The first step is to wash the beets. As beets are a root vegetable you need to scrub them well to remove all dirt.
And as with all veggies for baby, I recommend only buying organic beets.
How to Cook Beets for Baby Food
The easiest way to cook beets is to boil them.
After washing your beets you can simply add them whole to a pot of water and simmer for 2 hours.
Yep, it’s that easy!
Boiling them whole will not only make it easier to remove the outer layer but will help to retain juices within the beets.
Beet Baby Food Puree
To puree the beets I highly recommend purchasing a Vitamix Blender to make your baby food with. It is one of the best blenders and will blend baby food to a super smooth consistency to insure that you do not end up with beet chunks in the baby food that baby can gag or choke on.
This is the only blender that I will use when pureeing not only baby food, but other recipes such as Sweet Potato Pie or Apple Butter as well! It is the best! And it lasts FOREVER! I have had my Vitamix for over a decade and it’s still going strong and purees foods just as good as the day I got it! Definitely worth investing in!
Beet Puree
Before adding the boiled beets to the blender cut them up into chunks. This will make it easier to blend instead of adding them whole.
I usually fill my blender about 1/3 full at a time and blend in batches to help speed the process up. You may need to also add a little water at this time. Be sure that you use a good quality filtered or RO water.
Start with a few tablespoons of water as you can always add more. If the beets get too thick it will not blend well. So keep stopping and scraping down the sides of the blender as needed and adding water until all the beets are smooth and well blended.
You want it to be somewhat thick and not runny, so don’t add too much water. You basically only want to add as much water as is needed to help the blender out. Otherwise the beets will just stick to the sides and won’t fall down to the blades.
Once all the beets are blended to a super smooth consistency you have baby food! Yep, it’s that easy!
How to Store Homemade Baby Food
But wait, we’re not done yet!
What are you supposed to do with this large batch of beet baby food?
Like I mentioned above you can make a LOT of baby food in a short amount of time. The key is to freeze the beet puree that you won’t be using in the next couple of days for later.
However, you don’t want to freeze it all together. You want to be able to freeze it in serving sizes so that you can easily thaw out and use a small amount at a time. This way you can have baby food for a month or more!
How to Freeze Baby Food
To freeze baby food efficiently you really need to get these baby food cube trays. They’re kind of like ice cube trays that have lids.
Simply scoop the pureed beets into the trays, place the lid on, and put it in the freezer. Once they are completely frozen you can pop them out and store them in freezer bags that are labeled with the date made.
Now you have a large supply of ready made, single serving, beets baby food cubes! How easy is that?!
How to Thaw Frozen Baby Food
When it comes time to use your frozen beet cubes you need to be sure that they are thawed in advance.
There are a couple of different ways to thaw out beet baby food.
The easiest is to put it in a bowl with a lid the night before and let it thaw in the fridge. That way the next day it will be soft and ready to use.
However, I know from experience, that this isn’t always an option! There were many times that I forgot to lay my baby food out and had to do it just before serving it.
I really don’t recommend thawing baby food in the microwave. Not only does it leave hot spots in the baby food that can burn your baby, but it also is bad for the baby food! You can read here about the dangers of microwaves and why I don’t have one.
So, the best way to thaw frozen baby food cubes quickly is to fill a bowl that is a little larger than the bowl holding the baby food with hot water. Sit the bowl with the cubes in the hot water. The heat will be enough to cause the cubes to melt.
You might have to change the water a few times and add fresh hot water as it gets cold. Also occasionally turn the cube and break it up as it gets softer to help speed up thawing.
I know this might seem like a pain, but it’s the best way to thaw the cubes so that they don’t get too hot for baby and the best way to preserve the nutrients in the food that you worked hard to make!
Be sure to test the thawed beets to be sure that they aren’t too hot before feeding it to your baby.
Homemade Beet Baby Food
And that’s how you make homemade beets baby food!
Now the only thing left to do is to serve it to your little one:) I hope they enjoy it as much as you enjoy giving your baby the healthiest food possible!
For additional baby food recipes be sure to read:
How to Make Broccoli Baby Food
How to Make Zucchini Baby Food
How to make Green Bean Baby Food
How to Make Sweet Potato Baby Food
How to Make Butternut Squash Baby Food
Beet Baby Food Recipe
Beets Baby Food
Give your baby super nutritious beets baby food! It's easy to make and oh so healthy!
Ingredients
- Organic Beets (washed and scrubbed well)
- Filtered or RO Water
Instructions
Simmer beets whole for two hours.
Before adding the boiled beets to the blender cut them up into chunks. This will make it easier to blend instead of adding them whole.
I usually fill my blender about 1/3 full at a time and blend in batches to help speed the process up. You may need to also add a little water at this time. Be sure that you use a good quality filtered or RO water.
Start with a few tablespoons of water as you can always add more. If the beets get too thick it will not blend well. So keep stopping and scraping down the sides of the blender as needed and adding water until all the beets are smooth and well blended.
You want it to be somewhat thick and not runny, so don't add too much water. You basically only want to add as much water as is needed to help the blender out. Otherwise the beets will just stick to the sides and won't fall down to the blades.
Once all the beets are blended to a super smooth consistency you have baby food! Yep, it's that easy!
