Saturday, December 10, 2011

Basic Spinach Puree

When Little Joy was around 12 months, I started looking for anything and everything I could make that was iron rich.  Since she was not formula fed, by the time she was 12 months her iron levels were slightly low.  Spinach was a obvious solution, but as I read about spinach I had no idea it was not only iron rich but also calcium and vitamin A rich too!  Basic Spinach Puree is super easy!!!

NITRATE WARNING:  Homemade spinach should be used in moderation before the 8 months of age.  And DO NOT USE ANY WATER used in cooking the spinach to thin your puree.


Ingredients:
  • Spinach (washed, long stems removed and damaged leaves removed)
Steps using a steamer:
  1. Place spinach in steamer
  2. Steam for 15 minutes
  3. Allow to cool slightly
  4. Remove from steamer and place in pureeing device
  5. Puree to desired consistency adding fresh water or breast milk to thin as needed
  6. Serve warm
  7. Freeze using cube method or refrigerate  
Steps without a steamer:
  1. Steam in a pot with a steamer basket insert (water should just peek through the holes of the basket).
  2. Leaves will shrink and appear wilted when done.
  3. Remove from pot and place in pureeing device
  4. Puree to desired consistency adding fresh water or breast milk to thin as needed
  5. Serve warm
  6. Freeze using cube method or refrigerate  
Storage:  Using freezer cube method 1-2 months; refrigerator 2-3 days

Timing:  8 months

Difficulty:  1 out of 5

Epicutie Rating:  Little Joy never had plain spinach puree, but when Epicutie Asher tries it, we will review it!!

at

2 comments:

  1. StoriDecember 10, 2011 at 1:05 PM

    I have made this for a very long time and my only advice is this - either make A LOT of it or use an immersion blender (I don't have one). I find even when I put this in my little chopper it has a hard time pureeing this because it steams/cooks down so small so you need to make a lot for it to blend well in normal pureeing devices.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KatherineDecember 11, 2011 at 8:28 PM

    We LOVE spinach at my house. Because we eat dairy-free now, Isabelle has a dairy allergy, we have to find other sources of calcium. My two favorite ways to incorporate spinach are with eggs and in pesto(spinach, goat cheese, garlic, walnuts, olive oil, S&P)----the pesto disappears quickly. I like frozen spinach (or spinach from our garden when it grows) because bagged spinach goes bad quickly.

    ReplyDelete