EAT > Baby Food Recipes

Steaming veggies vs cooking in water

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Bella89:
Hi,
I wanted to ask for your opinion.
Do you steam cook veggies for your LOs or just boil in water.
I was wondering... I know steam vegetables are healthier for you, but since I am using water when blending... Does it make a difference if I use water from veggies to blend? All the vitamins from cooking would still be in the food.
What do you think?

creations:
I don't know the technical side of this in terms of nutrition other than what you've already said. If you boil in water I can't imagine you'd use all of that in the blending so even if the nutrients are in the water I think you'd still be losing much of the water, yk?  Many veg blend to a puree without any water even if they are steamed or roasted so there is no added water ...unless you are making the puree very very thin?

Some things can be cooked on a low heat with a lid on the pan without any water or literally just a splash, and they cook in their own juice (eg carrots with nothing or barely a splash of water or a squeeze of orange).

From memory some things such as beans should have their cooking water discarded.

Bella89:
Yes, you are right. Some of the water I would probably discard.
I didn't know that about beans. Good to know. I was going to steam some sweet pees for my DS finger food.
I will stay with steaming for now. It takes more time, but it's probably worth it.

Another question, but similar. Do you think freezing small portions for a few days will be ok? Nutrition-wise?

creations:
There's some information here on freezing and storage
Tips for Making Baby Food
Many people use ice cube trays to initially freeze small portions, once frozen you can transfer the cubes to a freezer bag to free up the tray for the next batch.
I've never done this as I didn't offer purees and only froze foods such as mini pancakes, muffins and bean burgers.  Nutrition should be fine so long as you pay attention to the usual rules of how long you keep the food frozen.

Alternatively, if you are finding it a struggle to prepare small amounts of food for baby you could consider suitable parts of your own meals to offer.  I sometimes cooked additional veggies and kept a portion for LO the following day rather than cooking large batches.

Martini~:
Hi Bella:)! Nice to have you on this forum!

I had a steam-cooker/blender from Avent which did the job brilliantly. Have you seen that kind of machines? They are available on Allegro to buy for reasonable amount of money - both new and used-ones. I am even selling it out right now, LOL - as LO is not eating much purée now.

I loved to steam cook with that and than blend as its done in one container, and then you can freeze as ice cubes. I did that with every vegetable and fruit I could and was able to avoid jar food in the early months of weaning. As you say I preferred steam cooking on boiling but probably I wouldn't do it if not this machine as it would be too much mess and stuff to be done...

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