Are you wanting to give your baby the most nutritious baby food possible? Then make your own! Find out here how to make your own carrot baby food!
This site contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using one of these links, I may earn a commission. Please visit my disclaimer page for more information about cookies collected and our privacy policy.
Carrot 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!
Homemade Carrot Baby Food
Carrots are very nutritious!
They are loaded with beta-carotene which is a crucial form of vitamin A. So feed your baby lots of fresh homemade carrot baby food for optimal health!
Even as your baby gets older carrots should still be an important part of their diet. Now that my kids are older I still give them carrots both raw for snacks, and in the form of fresh homemade juice! It’s a great source of nutrition and one that everyone should be consuming!
How to Make Carrot Baby Food
So let’s get started and go make some carrot baby food!
The only ingredients that you will need for this recipe are carrots, and a little filtered or reverse osmosis water.
The first step is to wash and prepare the carrots.
As with all veggies for baby, I recommend only buying organic carrots.
Making Baby Food Carrots
If the carrots are small or young you can just wash them well (give them a good scrub with a veggie brush). If they are large older carrots, or really dirty, you might want to peel them.
The nutrients that the carrots contain are concentrated in the peel, so if avoidable it’s always best to leave the peel on.
You can leave the carrots whole, but chopping them into slices will speed up cooking time.
How to Steam Carrots
Cooking the carrots makes them not only easier for baby to digest, but also makes the beta-carotene more available.
Babies must be older and closer to a year old to consume raw carrots.
The easiest way to cook carrots is to steam them, which is incredibly easy to do.
How Long to Steam Carrots
Simply add water to the bottom of the steamer, put the steamer basket in place, and add your chopped carrots to the basket. Place the lid on and turn on the burner. Once steam begins to build up you want to steam the carrots for about 10 minutes.
You will need to steam them for about 15 to 20 minutes if you decided not to cut the carrots but left them whole.
How to Puree Carrots
To puree the carrots 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 carrot chunks in the baby food that baby can 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!
Carrot Puree Recipe
So add the carrot slices to the blender. I usually fill mine about 1/3 full at a time and blend in batches to help speed the process up. You need to also add a little water at this time. If you want to add back in some of the nutrients that were lost during steaming you can use the water that you used to steam the carrots. Just be sure that you use a good quality filtered or RO water when you steam them.
Start with a few tablespoons of water as you can always add more. If the carrots get too thick they will not blend well. So keep stopping and scraping down the sides of the blender as needed and adding water until all the carrots are smooth and blend well.
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 carrots will just stick to the sides and won’t fall down to the blades.
Once all the carrots 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 carrot baby food? I mean, as good as carrots are for you, your baby isn’t going to eat the whole batch at once;)
Like I mentioned above you can make a LOT of baby food in a short amount of time. The key is to freeze the carrot 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 carrot 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, carrot baby food cubes! How easy is that?!
How to Thaw Frozen Baby Food
When it comes time to use your frozen carrot cubes you need to be sure that they are thawed in advance.
There are a couple of different ways to thaw out carrot 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 carrots to be sure that they are not too hot before feeding it to your baby.
Making Carrot Baby Food
And that’s how you make homemade carrot 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 Sweet Potato Baby Food
Carrot Baby Food Recipe
Carrot Baby Food
Make your own nutrient dense carrot baby food!
Ingredients
- Organic Sliced Carrots
- Filtered or RO Water
Instructions
To steam carrots simply add water to the bottom of the steamer, put the steamer basket in place, and add your chopped carrots to the basket. Place the lid on and turn on the burner to medium/high. Once steam begins to build up you want to steam the carrots for about 10 minutes.
You will need to steam them for about 15 to 20 minutes if you decided not to cut the carrots but left them whole.
How to Puree Carrots
Add the carrot slices to the blender. I usually fill mine about 1/3 full at a time and blend in batches to help speed the process up.
You need to also add a little water at this time. If you want to add back in some of the nutrients that were lost during steaming you can use the water that you used to steam the carrots. Just be sure that you used a good quality filtered or RO water when you steamed them.
Start with a few tablespoons of water as you can always add more. If the carrots get too thick they will not blend well. So keep stopping and scraping down the sides of the blender as needed and adding water until all the carrots are smooth and blend well.
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 carrots will just stick to the sides and won't fall down to the blades.
Once all the carrots are blended to a super smooth consistency you have baby food! Yep, it's that easy!
