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 zucchini baby food!
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Zucchini 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!
Making Zucchini Baby Food
Zucchini are very nutritious!
They contain vitamin C, Manganese, Vitamin B-6, Vitamin K, Zinc, Iron and more!
The majority of the nutrients are found in the peels.
Even as your baby gets older zucchini should still be an important part of their diet.
When you child is old enough to chew and eat larger items, you can grate the zucchini, and then when they are even older you can cut zucchini into sticks for them to eat by themselves!
But for now, when they are still little, we want to make the zucchini into baby food to prevent choking.
How to Make Zucchini Baby Food
So let’s get started and go make some zucchini baby food!
The only ingredients that you will need for this recipe are zucchini, and a little filtered or reverse osmosis water.
As with all veggies for baby, I recommend only buying organic zucchini.
You want to choose zucchini that are bright green. They should feel firm and heavy, but should be tender enough that you could puncture the skin easily.
The best zucchini for baby are smaller in size so that they are not too tough. About six inches long is a good size to look for.
How to Prepare Zucchini for Baby Food
The first step is to wash the zucchini.
You also need to cut off and throw away the ends.
If the zucchini are small you can cook them whole. If they are a little on the larger size, or if you would like them to cook a little faster you can cut them into even slices.
Should I Peel Zucchini for Baby Food?
As I already mentioned, the majority of the nutrients are found in the peels.
So you do not want to peel the zucchini. Leave the peels on so that your baby can benefit from the wonderful nutrients found in them!
This is also another good reason to buy organic zucchini. Buying organic zucchini means that you do not have to worry about harmful pesticides being present on the zucchini peels.
How Do You Cook Zucchini for Baby Food?
There are a couple of healthy options when it comes to cooking zucchini for baby food.
My favorite method for cooking zucchini is to steam it. Mainly because that’s what I’m used to doing when preparing zucchini for myself.
But zucchini can also be baked, which doesn’t require any water.
How to Bake Zucchini
Baking zucchini is very easy.
Simply place zucchini in a covered baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.
It’s that easy!
How to Steam Zucchini for Baby Food
Steaming zucchini is really just as easy and actually faster as far as cooking time.
To steam zucchini, simply add water to the bottom of the steamer, put the steamer basket in place, and add your zucchini to the basket. Place the lid on and turn on the burner.
Once steam begins to build up you want to steam whole zucchini for about 10-15 minutes, and sliced zucchini for about 5-8 minutes.
How to Make Zucchini Into Baby Food
To transform zucchini pieces into baby food you need to puree them.
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 zucchini 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!
Zucchini Baby Puree
So add the zucchini 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 may also need to 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 zucchini. 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 zucchini gets 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 zucchini 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 zucchini will just stick to the sides and won’t fall down to the blades.
Once all the zucchini is 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 zucchini baby food? I mean, as good as zucchini 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 zucchini 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!
Zucchini Baby Food Freezing
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 zucchini 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, zucchini baby food cubes! How easy is that?!
How to Thaw Frozen Baby Food
When it comes time to use your frozen zucchini cubes you need to be sure that they are thawed in advance.
There are a couple of different ways to thaw out zucchini 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 zucchini to be sure that they are not too hot before feeding it to your baby.
And that’s how you make homemade zucchini 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!
Baby Food Recipes
For additional baby food recipes be sure to read:
How to make Green Bean Baby Food
How to Make Sweet Potato Baby Food
How to Make Butternut Squash Baby Food
Zucchini Baby Food Recipe
Zucchini Baby Food
Make your own nutrient dense zucchini baby food!
Ingredients
- Organic Zucchini
- Filtered or RO Water
Instructions
How to Bake Zucchini
- Simply place zucchini in a covered baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.
How to Steam Zucchini for Baby Food
- To steam zucchini, simply add water to the bottom of the steamer, put the steamer basket in place, and add your zucchini to the basket. Place the lid on and turn on the burner.
- Once steam begins to build up you want to steam whole zucchini for about 10-15 minutes, and sliced zucchini for about 5-8 minutes.
Zucchini Baby Puree
- Fill blender about 1/3 full with zucchini. If needed add a little water.
- Start with a few tablespoons of water as you can always add more. If the zucchini gets 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 zucchini 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 zucchini will just stick to the sides and won't fall down to the blades.
- Once all the zucchini is blended to a super smooth consistency you have baby food! Yep, it's that easy!
