After trying carrots with Chloe as her first solid food (she enjoyed them!) we decided we wanted to give her a green vegetable as her next solid food. Because, well…it sounded like a good idea to go with something green? Hah! When you have a baby and you start solids, you quickly realize that you have a lot of freedom to choose how you want to approach everything, and we figured a green veggie early on wouldn’t hurt.
We chose to use fresh green beans for this puree, but you could also most definitely use frozen to save even more time. And just as it was when making homemade carrot baby food, all you need are the vegetable of choice (in this case – green beans!), a blender or food processor, a pan to steam your veggies in, and an ice cube tray. Let’s make baby food!
GREEN BEAN BABY FOOD INGREDIENTS
Stage 1 purees are super simple, and all you ever need are the actual fruit or veggie, plus some of the reserved water you steamed it with. For this puree, we used green beans from a local vegetable store. Be sure to wash them, trim off the ends, and cut into halves or thirds.
HOW TO MAKE GREEN BEAN BABY FOOD
- Prepare your green beans Rinse your green beans, then cut off the ends. Cut them into halves or thirds., depending on how long they are.
- Get your steamer ready: While you’re preparing the green beans, set the basket of a steamer over a pot of water and bring to a boil.
- Add green beans: When the water is boiling, add the green bean pieces to the steamer basket, and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until tender.
- Reserve water and drain: reserve some of the cooking water and set aside, then drain the green beans.
- Blend: Add the green beans to your blender or food processor, and blend, adding water as needed to move things along.
- Freeze: Spoon mixture into ice cube trays, freeze, then bag.
NOTES & RECOMMENDATIONS
(Note: these are the same recommendations I have in my original Homemade Carrot Baby Food post, so feel free to skip if you’ve already read them there 🙂 )
- Blender: any good blender or food processor should work well, but obviously the stronger it is, the more likely you are to have a smooth and creamy result for your baby. I have a Vitamix (this one, if you’re interested!) that my parents gifted us a few years ago (thanks, Mom and Dad! 🙂 ) and it is the absolute best. After having some sub-par blenders over the years, this one is most definitely worth the extra money (or, if you can get someone to gift it to you…even better! 😉 ) It makes all of the purees so, so smooth in such a short amount of time.
- Silicone ice cube tray: This makes it easy to portion the baby food (my tray holds one rounded tablespoon per cube) and the fact that it’s silicone makes it super easy to pop the frozen cubes out. I can’t find my exact tray online, but these are similar (and they even have lids, which I wish mine had!)
- Baby spoons: These are unrelated to the making of the baby food, but instead, related to the eating of it. 🙂 We just wanted to recommend these spoons, since we love them so much! The spoon turns white if the food is too hot for baby. They take all of the guesswork out of everything – so easy!
Once your cubes are frozen, pop them out of the ice cube tray, transfer them into a storage bag, and pop the whole thing in the freezer. When your baby is ready to eat, take out a cube or two, microwave in ten-second increments until thawed, and enjoy!
HOMEMADE GREEN BEAN BABY FOOD
Ingredients
- 1 bunch fresh green beans
- reserved cooking water
Instructions
- Set the basket of a steamer over a pot of water and bring to a boil.
- Rinse your green beans, then trim off the ends. Cut into halves or thirds, depending on how long they are.
- When the water is boiling, add the green bean pieces to the steamer basket, and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until tender.
- Reserve some of the cooking water and set aside, then drain the green beans.
- Add the green beans to your blender or food processor and blend, adding water as needed to move things along.
- Using a tablespoon, spoon the mixture into an ice cube tray. Smooth the top of each cube with a rubber spatula, then freeze.
- Once fully frozen, remove green bean puree cubes from the ice cube tray and transfer to a storage bag, then return to the freezer. Use as needed.
Notes
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So for the record, Layla wasn t a huge fan of green beans when I first made them for her. She d gag, cough, make faces it was actually kind of entertaining even though she wasn t very happy with me for giving her green beans ??
I’m sorry to hear that! It is normal for babies to gag and make faces when trying food for the first several times, though…I’m sure she’ll come around (and if not, find other veggies that she loves!)