Banana tapioca pumpkin pudding

My little Alex turned 6 months and he is more than ready for his first solid meals!!! I’m sooo excited, I can’t wait to see him exploring new tastes, textures, flavors and enjoy the pleasure of food.

Today I’m using Tapioca, it comes in white pearls. It’s a starch that is commonly used in desserts like puddings. It acts like a gelatin giving a very creamy texture to the recipe, that’s why I think it’s a very good ingredient for baby food. From a nutritional point of view tapioca consists mainly of carbohydrates and it also contains folic acid and iron.

I’m also using banana and pumpkin to give natural sweetness to the pudding. Secret ingredient: star anise. A spice that I really like and that will give a delicate extra flavor to the pudding. Few

simple ingredients for a delicate sweet dessert.

Let’s start baking our pumpkin. I used a small one and baked it at 350F. for 40 minutes. The pulp was than cooked and tender to be scooped out with a spoon.

At the same time I soaked the tapioca in some water for 30 min. The tapioca absorbed all the water.

In a small sauce pan I added the tapioca, 1 cup and 1/2 of water and 1 star anise.

I turned the heat on at medium and kept stirring up until the mix was boiling. Than reduced the heat at low and let the tapioca simmer for 5/7 minutes

I removed the star anise from the tapioca and placed the banana and the pumpkin pulp in a bowl.

Added the tapioca and with a immersion mixer created a nice and smooth puree.

This recipe can be a new baby food to offer to your baby (I pureed everything for my little Alex) or a nice dessert for the entire family (to be served warm, it’s soo good!).
Enjoy!

see you next week with another recipe!!

ciao