Cauliflower puree for children - general principles and methods of preparation
Cauliflower is loved by many, due to its soft and delicate taste, ease of preparation and low calorie content, which is combined with high nutritional value. Cauliflower contains various vitamins and valuable trace elements, while it is absorbed by our body more easily (compared to white cabbage) and does not cause gas formation in the intestines. That is why cauliflower has such an important place in baby food.
Dishes from this vegetable are often given to children up to a year as a first feeding, as they are useful for the children's digestive tract and especially if the baby is tormented by constipation. Cauliflower is rich in easily digestible proteins, which contain a large amount of amino acids, proteins, mineral salts and carbohydrates, as well as vitamin C, vitamins PP and A and B vitamins.
At the same time, cauliflower dishes are prepared very easily and quickly. In baby food, mashed potatoes and mashed soups are most common, for the preparation of which they use cauliflower.
Cauliflower puree for children - product preparation
Cooking this dish begins with a selection of cauliflower. The vegetable should be of high quality and fresh, as can be seen by carefully studying its appearance. Fresh cabbage is distinguished by elastic inflorescences of pure white color, without blackening and other defects, with bright green outer leaves, also dense. To prepare mashed potatoes for a child, it is best to take cabbage, which has inflorescences tightly pressed to each other. You should not take cabbage with dark spots on inflorescences and dried leaves, since, most likely, it is not fresh, which means it will not bring any benefit.
It happens that there is no chance to buy fresh cauliflower, but there is frozen on sale. It is up to you to decide whether or not to buy it for the preparation of the meal for the baby, however, when frozen, many vitamins and minerals are lost. Therefore, for baby food, it is better to choose only fresh products, including vegetables.
Cauliflower puree for children - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Cauliflower puree for first feeding
Such mashed potatoes can be given to a child starting from the age of 7 months, first 1 teaspoon per day, with a gradual daily increase in serving by 0.5 teaspoon.
Ingredients:
50 gr inflorescences of cauliflower.
Cooking method:
1. In a small saucepan, boil the cauliflower inflorescences for several minutes (do not salt the water). Then, taking the cabbage out of the water, beat it with a blender, adding the vegetable broth in which the vegetable was boiled during whipping.
2. When the mashed potatoes become homogeneous, it can be used for feeding. When preparing it, one should not spare the vegetable broth, since a product with a sufficiently liquid consistency will be more familiar to the baby and suitable for exploring adult food.
Recipe 2: Mashed Cauliflower and Carrot
This puree can be prepared for kids who have mastered vegetable dishes prepared from one vegetable. It has a richer taste and higher nutritional value due to the addition of vegetable oil.
Ingredients:
50 gr cauliflower;
25 gr carrots;
1 tsp rast. oils.
Cooking method:
1. Having washed the carrots thoroughly, peel it and cut it into pieces.
2. Having washed the cauliflower, we sort it into inflorescences.
3. Put vegetables in boiling water and cook for about 15 minutes.
4. Finished cauliflower and carrots are crushed in mashed potatoes using a blender.
5. Cooked mashed potatoes season with vegetable oil.
Recipe 3: Creamy Cauliflower Puree
The older the baby, the more products that are included in his diet, and the more he becomes interested in new tastes and new dishes. Offer him as a side dish for fish this light cauliflower puree seasoned with cream, and maybe it will become one of his favorite dishes.
Ingredients:
200 gr. cauliflower;
100 ml cream;
0.5 tsp lemon juice.
to taste the salt.
Cooking method:
1. Boil the cabbage inflorescences in a small amount of salted water until half ready. After draining the water, add the cream to it and simmer together for about another 10 minutes.
2. After that, adding lemon juice and salt to the resulting mass, grind everything with a blender until smooth. Serve on the table, decorating with chopped herbs.
Recipe 4: Cauliflower Soup
Extraordinarily delicious mashed soup, which can be used as a first course. It will appeal to both children and adults. To such a soup puree it is very good to serve croutons of white bread or a crispy baguette.
Ingredients:
500 gr. cauliflower;
0.5 cups cream;
3 tbsp. l butter;
yolks of 2 raw eggs;
50 gr flour;
2 tbsp. l olive oil;
to taste the salt.
Cooking method:
1. Finely chopped carrots and onions, fry them lightly in olive oil.
2. Having analyzed the average head of cauliflower for inflorescences, we postpone the 5-7 smallest. Then, boiling in a pan 1 liter of water, add the fried vegetables with finely chopped parsley root, bay leaf and cabbage inflorescences. Cook until cabbage is soft.
3. Transferring the finished cabbage into a separate pan, grind it to a state of homogeneous puree.
4. Heating the olive oil in a pan, add flour, lightly fry, add a little hot broth there to get a creamy consistency, and mix the contents of the pan with mashed cabbage. We filter the remaining broth and add it to the resulting mashed potatoes, send small inflorescences there, salt to taste and cook the soup puree for about 15 minutes.
5. Grind the egg yolks with cream and butter, and add the resulting mixture at the end of cooking in the soup puree. Warming it up for several minutes, remove from heat (no need to bring to a boil).
Cauliflower puree for children - useful tips from experienced chefs
If you are preparing mashed cauliflower for the first feeding of the baby, you do not need to salt it, thinking that the child may not like its fresh taste. The fact is that the taste sensations of infants are very different from the taste sensations of adults. For the baby, this will be just the first acquaintance with adult food and with new taste sensations. At the same time, it is important to pay serious attention to the preparation of such dishes, since having taught a child to eat vegetable dishes from the very beginning, you will not encounter the problem of organizing his rational nutrition at an older age.
