Rainbow chard and Oats baby puree

Baby Recipes using oats are traditionally sweet ones, somehow related to the lovely oats porridge so popular for breakfast. As Oats are a wonderful baby food ingredient I wanted to share with you a savory recipe too, using oats all together with some lovely organic fresh vegetables: rainbow chards, Japanese purple sweet potatoes and carrots!

Oats are whole grains loaded with fiber, iron, magnesium and vitamin B.

There are so many kinds of oats at the grocery store that you can really get confused (or, at least, I was when I went to buy some for my little one!): Steet Cut Oats, Oatmeal, Quick Oats, Instant Oats, Old Fashioned Oats, Rolled Oats…

I know that the name “instant” (aka = ready in no time) is very tempting, but I do NOT recommend either the Quick Oats or the Instant ones as they are highly processed.

My favorite choice for baby food is Steel Cut Oats, they will take 20/30 min to cook, but they are the least processed, more natural ones. Old Fashioned ones are fine too (they are simply steamed and than rolled flat). From a nutritional point of view, they are the same.

If you add some fresh seasonal vegetable to oats you will obtain a very well balanced and healthy baby food.

Also, if you want to give to your baby a complete meal, you can simply add in your baby bowl some proteins with one teaspoon of grated Parmesan cheese and some good fats with 1 teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The recipe is appropriate for babies starting from 6 months of age.

You can store the leftovers either in the refrigerator in an air tight container for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Print

Rainbow chard and Oats baby puree

Ingredients

• 3 leaves swiss chard with stalk
• 1/2 small Japanese purple sweet potato
• 2 small carrots
• 1/4 cup steel cut oats
• 1 1/2 cups water
• Optional
• 1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Add 1 1/2 Cup of water in a saucepan.
2. Bring water to boil and add the steel cut oats.
3. Cook for 3 min stirring frequently
4. Reduce the heat to minimum and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes stirring occasionally
5. Peel and cut the potato and the carrots in small pieces
6. Steam them for 8 minutes
7. Remove the chard stalk skin and chop it in big pieces
8. Add the swiss chard on top of the potato/carrot mix and keep steaming for 1 min
9. Place the steamed vegetables and the creamy oats in a tall container.
10. Add 1/2 cup of hot water or any other baby food thinning liquid you like. To see more options check out this post
11. Puree with an immersion blender until desired consistency.