How to help baby eat their greens!
“Sometimes it can be a challenge to encourage children to ‘eat their greens’. That’s why it’s best to start offering vegetables, including plenty of green veggies, when they are first introduced to solid foods. Vegetables are not only packed with vitamins and minerals, but also contain lots of different flavour profiles such as bitter and sour tastes to help expand baby’s palate from day one. It’s also a good idea to look at different and interesting ways to serve vegetables that will appeal to infants. A great idea, especially in the cold winter months, is to pack plenty of veggies into soups and offer these to your little ones on a regular basis. Soups are great as they are easy and inexpensive to make, can include pretty much any vegetables and children tend to enjoy them too.” Comments Charlotte Stirling-Reed, Registered Nutritionist specialising in infant and child nutrition
Charlotte adds “These soups can be thinned or bulked out with extra veggies to make it the right texture for your baby. Adding milk and yogurt to get the consistency (and temperature) right can really help too and this also boosts the soups’ nutrient content at the same time.
Spinach and Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 1 oz low salt butter or vegetable oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 medium potato peeled and chopped into small chunks
- 2oz of fresh spinach leaves
- ½ low salt stock cube made up with 250ml boiled water – alternatively if you prefer, use boiled water and no stock cube
- A dash of milk or a dollop of natural yoghurt to thin the soup or to serve
- Alternatively, stir in crème fraiche and a sprinkle of nutmeg just before serving
Method
- Melt the butter or heat the oil in a pan and add the chopped onions and potatoes. Cook gently for a couple of minutes
- Add the stock or water and boil for 10 minutes or until potatoes have softened
- Wash the spinach leaves and remove tough stalks. Then add to potatoes and stir until wilted
- You could also add steam broccolli florets at this stage if you wish.
- Leave to cool then blitz with a blender till smooth and add any further water or milk to desired consistency
- Add a dollop of crème fraiche and sprinkle of nutmeg if you wish and serve warmed in a Doidy Cup or Doidy Bowl
- Enjoy!
Nutritional Information
- Spinach contains small amounts of iron but is also packed with other nutrients such as calcium, folate, vitamin K and beta carotene. Many of these are important for the functioning of the immune system.
- If you add natural yoghurt or milk this recipe will also be a good source of protein and calcium for healthy bones and teeth.
- NB: Cows’ milk can be used in cooking from 6 months of age.
Doidy Cups can be bought from the following stockists; JoJoMamanBebe, John Lewis & Partners, Sainsbury’s and Ocado. Find them in independent baby product retailers or on Amazon. You can buy Doidy Bowl in JoJoMamanBebe and John Lewis & Partners, it is also available as a Gift Set of Doidy Cup and Bowl via our webshop.
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