A nutritious, iron rich first food for babies with an irresistible texture! Coconut milk, butternut squash and lentils combine to make a silky sweet puree which can be eaten plain or given different flavor boosts to suit your family’s tastes. This can also be watered down to make a delicious lentil soup for babies!
This is part of my iron rich baby purees series, where I am offering ideas for meatless first foods that make the most of plant based irons.
Red lentils are a source of iron, and an all round great first food for babies. In this baby food recipe, lentils are combined with butternut squash as a source of Vitamin C to aid absorption, lightly spiced with some cloves, and finished off with coconut milk to bring everything together with a silky texture and irresistible flavor.
I love using coconut milk in baby food. It adds sweetness, a silky texture and lots of fats, vitamins and minerals. But there’s actually a lot of talk against coconut milk for babies online, so let’s address that.
The gist of it is that coconut milk is not a great milk substitute for babies and toddlers. As a cooking ingredient, it’s got lots to offer, but I am not looking at it as a milk, per se.
This is an easy win for babies who prefer very smooth purees, and sweeter tastes. Lots of babies fit this description when they first start on solids!
I’ve given these a tiny hint of spice by cooking the lentils with some cloves. For those with more adventurous tastebuds, there’s lots more you can do to add some excitement to this dish. I’ve listed some ideas in the recipe card!
Please note, my photos it looks quite thin and a little soupy. It was hot from the pan when I photographed it, but after being stored in the fridge or freezer it will thicken up. You can water it back down when you reheat it if you want to.
Can I freeze this baby puree?
Yes, this freezes for up to 6 months. In the fridge or freezer the puree will thicken quite a bit so might need to be diluted a little
Alternative Serving Suggestion : A lentil soup for babies, toddlers or kids
Water this down a little to make a delicious warm lentil soup! Especially great for those who are very new to solids or like their purees extra thin. And if you’re cooking for children of multiple ages.
What can I do with leftovers?
If your baby moves on from the puree stage before you’ve used this up, you can make some great meals for older babies and toddlers with this puree.
They will continue to benefit greatly from the goodness of lentils, and this has a sweet taste that they should hopefully continue to accept into the toddler years. Each idea uses one portion quite nicely.
- Watered down a little, as a soup or a sauce for a baby curry with mixed vegetables
- Mixed with couscous, quinoa or rice
- As a baked potato topping
More baby food recipes with iron
Spiced Coconut Butternut Lentil Puree {Iron Rich Baby Food}
Ingredients
- ½ cup (90 g) of dried red lentils
- 1 cup (140 g) chopped butternut squash cubes
- 1 ½ cups (355 ml) water
- 5-10 cloves
- ¾ cup (180 ml) canned coconut milk
Instructions
- Add the lentils, cloves, butternut squash and water to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the lentils and squash are cooked (about 15 minutes). Add more water if it looks like it's drying out too soon.
- Remove the cloves.
- Add the coconut milk and mix until incorporated.
- Puree the mixture using a hand blender, food processor or baby food maker.
I love this series! I’m super keen on the BLW concept, but as a nutritionist I know that iron is where it falls apart, so with my first born I did a combination of BLW and purees / cereals that had a good iron content. I love the idea of making your own lentil puree and freezing the leftovers!
I made baby food for both of my kiddos and wish I had seen this delicious recipe back then! I love how it incorporates the butternut squash for extra nutrition.
This looks great! Do you think I could use green lentils?
Absolutely but the cooking time will be longer, you’ll need a little more water and it won’t puree quite so smooth or look so bright.
Way too much water in this recipe. It turns it into a watery soup not a purée. Disappointed, waste of ingredients.
Sarah I am so sorry you had a bad experience here. Did it firm up after sitting in the fridge for a while? Because my experience has always been that it comes out soupy (and baby can eat it that way if they like) but then gets much thicker after being refrigerated because the lentils just continue to soak up the water.
Hello! Thanks for this recipe—a big hit with our little one, and provides a base we can play with for the adults’ meals, too. I’ve frozen this on a few occasions but wondering how long you’d recommend using it if refrigerated. Do you know how long this keeps we’ll? Thanks!
That’s wonderful to hear! Especially since I am just about to try this one out with baby #2 🙂 I’d generally keep baby food in the fridge for no more than 3 days. It might be fine for 5 days, but I am not an expert in this matter so I’ll just freeze it if it’s going to be longer than 3.
This recipe sounds yummy! I’m a little confused on the prep time….5 hours? Am I cooking the beans for 5 hours first?
Oops! That was just a typo, so sorry. No pre cooking or soaking, it’s 5 minutes prep time, not 5 hours! I fixed it. Thanks so much for pointing this out! 🙂