Meat Baby Food Recipe

Homemade baby food in jars

Catherine Delahaye / Getty Images

Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 90 mins
Total: 105 mins
Servings: 10 servings

You may know that making baby food is pretty easy, if you've pureed steamed carrots or peas, or even just made applesauce from scratch. But have you ever tried making homemade baby food with meat? It may seem harder, but it's not tough. It's also incredibly flavorful for your baby's tastebuds, and you can control the ingredients as needed.

This recipe is designed for beef, but you can make meat baby food using pork, lamb, chicken, or turkey. In the case of this meat puree, it also includes potatoes, carrots, and peas and is basically a simple recipe for beef stew that's pureed in a food processor. However, if you have a baby food blender you can use that instead, as they tend to puree things incredibly finely and smoothly.

If you use poultry, you can reduce the meat cooking time by half. May be frozen if desired. This recipe is designed for babies six to 12 months old.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons fat, or oil

  • 1 1/2 pounds boneless stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes

  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

  • 3 cups water, vegetable or fruit juice

  • 4 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut into pieces

  • 5 medium carrots, scrubbed and cut into pieces

  • 1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas, or any other green vegetable

Steps to Make It

  1. Heat fat in a large-size heavy saucepan over ​medium-high heat.

  2. Coat the meat in the flour and brown in the fat. Add the liquid and cover tightly.

  3. Simmer over medium heat for 1 1/2 hours.

  4. Add potatoes and carrots. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add frozen peas, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Puree stew into a smooth consistency.

  5. Store in refrigerator up to two days; freeze for two to three months. Serve the baby food cold or at room temperature.

Source: "The Complete New Guide to Preparing Baby Foods," by Sue Castle (Bantam Books)

Tip

It's better to err on the side of what may look like too much when pureeing this stew: it's baby food. If you find that you're having a hard time reaching the consistency you need, add a little more water to the ingredients while pureeing them, until it's thin and smooth enough.

Variations

  • Any meat can be substituted for beef, but chicken and pork work very well.
  • Use canned white beans instead of beef. It will cook a lot more quickly, the beans will puree easily, and flavors will still be good.
  • Swap 1/2 cup of uncooked rice for the potatoes.


How to Store and Freeze Homemade Meat Baby Food

You can keep this baby food, once it's prepared for 2 or 3 days, tops, in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

However, it works really well if you freeze it in ice cube trays and then transfer the frozen food into a zip-close freezer bag. Some types of ice cube trays are designed specifically for baby food and come with lids, which makes it very easy to portion out into sizes for your baby as they grow. You can safely freeze this for up to 3 months.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
264 Calories
8g Fat
24g Carbs
26g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 10
Amount per serving
Calories 264
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 8g 10%
Saturated Fat 2g 11%
Cholesterol 67mg 22%
Sodium 89mg 4%
Total Carbohydrate 24g 9%
Dietary Fiber 4g 13%
Total Sugars 3g
Protein 26g
Vitamin C 10mg 51%
Calcium 38mg 3%
Iron 3mg 19%
Potassium 677mg 14%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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