When can you give your baby spinach and how best to cook

For many mothers, feeding a child with healthy food is a real problem – not every vegetable will appeal to babies. It’s no secret that spinach is just such a product – not all children like its bland taste. Proven spinach recipes for a child will help prepare not only healthy, but also delicious dishes.

Benefits of spinach for kids

A rare hostess has not heard about the benefits of spinach, but despite this, dishes from it are rarely found on our tables. In baby food, this leafy vegetable is present more and more often, since its nutritional value meets the needs of a growing organism as much as possible. Vitamins K, E, PP, C, B, A, trace elements zinc, selenium, magnesium, iron, copper, iodine – this is an incomplete list of useful substances contained in this culture. Due to its composition, it has a beneficial effect on the entire body:

• normalizes metabolic processes;
• strengthens bones and teeth, is an excellent prevention of rickets;
• increases immunity;
• strengthens blood vessels;
• helps in the treatment of anemia;
• slows down cell aging;
• normalizes digestion;
• helps reduce the risk of cancer;
• strengthens the central nervous system, normalizes metabolic processes in the brain.

In addition, it is well absorbed and does not overload the digestive system of the child. This leafy vegetable belongs to dietary dishes: 100 g of stems and leaves contain only 23 kcal, and due to the presence of dietary fiber, there is a feeling of satiety.

At what age can you give your baby spinach?

This greens does not belong to allergenic products, but, like other vegetables, it should be introduced into the diet of an infant gradually, since individual intolerance may occur. The best age to start weaning spinach is 6-8 months, although in Europe it is included in baby food for 4-6 months old babies. You should start by adding a few leaves to your usual food. As with the introduction of any other product, it is important to monitor the individual reaction of the child. Children up to a year are given spinach up to 2 times a week.

If there are no contraindications, pediatricians recommend introducing dishes from this greenery before the child reaches the age of one year – as a rule, older children have difficulty accepting the taste of this product.

How to cook spinach for kids

Leaves and young stems are added to children’s dishes in a stew. They are carefully sorted, washed and cut into small pieces. Stew in butter in its own juice, sometimes add water. Spinach is also boiled, steamed or baked in the oven. Freshly used for salads and thick drinks, added to sauces.

When cooking dishes from spinach, it should be borne in mind that heat treatment destroys some of the vitamins, so it is put at the end of cooking. But with deep freezing, the vegetable retains all the beneficial substances. Frozen spinach is often used for cooking for children. To preserve as many nutrients as possible, it is better to add it to dishes without defrosting. It should be borne in mind that this frozen ingredient is added half as much during cooking as fresh.

Healthy Recipes for Kids

Spinach can be included as an ingredient in first courses, salads, side dishes, casseroles, thick drinks. Its taste goes well with meat, poultry, fish, cereals, vegetables, and the composition of vitamins and minerals makes any dish more useful.

Spinach puree for baby

This basic puree recipe is suitable for the youngest children who are just getting acquainted with “adult” food. It can be prepared for a baby up to a year.

Ingredients:

• 500 g spinach leaves;
• 2 st. l. butter;
• some milk.

Preparation:

1. Wash and chop greens.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
3. Put the spinach and simmer for 15 minutes in its own juice.
4. Cool the resulting mass and grind in a blender.
5. Boil milk.
6. Add milk to puree and heat over low heat. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens.

This dish can be varied by adding potatoes, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin or other vegetables that are introduced first. You can add chicken or meat broth to the puree if it is already present in the child’s diet.

Soup with spinach for a child

An older child, at 2 years old, can make spinach soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 liter of meat, chicken or vegetable broth;
• 2 medium potatoes;
• about 200 g of frozen spinach;
• 1 small carrot;
• salt, spices to taste;
• 1 Art. l lemon juice;
• 1/3 cup boiled rice;
• 1 boiled egg;
• sour cream for dressing.

Preparation:

1. Finely chop potatoes and carrots, put in boiling broth and cook for 20 minutes.
2. Add spices, rice, salt and cook for another 2 minutes.
3. Add spinach and lemon juice. Boil over low heat for another 5 minutes.
4. Serve with boiled egg and sour cream.

On this basis, you can cook vegetable soup without rice. For an older child, from 3 years old, you can add frying: finely chopped onions and grated carrots, overcook in vegetable oil before adding to the soup.

Delicate soufflé with chicken

In a year, children can be offered spinach as part of a soufflé with chicken. This vegetable helps to digest the protein contained in the bird and enriches the dish with vitamins.

Ingredients:

• half a small chicken breast;
• water for boiling chicken;
• 2 Art. l milk;
• Xnumx spinach;
• 1 egg;
• 1 tsp butter;
• salt.

Preparation:

1. Boil the chicken fillet until tender in lightly salted water, cool, chop.
2. Wash the spinach and simmer in a saucepan for 5-7 minutes.
3. Separate the yolk from the protein, add to the chicken, mix the chicken with the spinach.
4. Beat the protein and add to the fillet and spinach mixture.
5. Pour the mixture into a soufflé mold.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C.

Green smoothies

If the child did not like the vegetable, a healthy smoothie recipe will come to the aid of the mother, which can be prepared in a matter of minutes. Smoothies have gained such popularity for a reason: they are quick to prepare, healthy, and give you the opportunity to experiment with the ingredients to your own taste. Children a year can be offered, for example, such a green drink:

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of spinach leaves (can be frozen);
• 200 g of water;
• 1 pear;
• 1 tsp lemon juice;
• 1 tsp honey (for children from 3 years).

Preparation:

1. Frozen spinach should thaw at room temperature.
2. Peel the pear, cut into large pieces.
3. Sprinkle with lemon juice.
4. Grind pear slices, spinach, honey in a blender.
5. Dilute with water to desired consistency.

This cocktail is suitable for feeding a child from 11-12 months. If you serve such an emerald drink in a beautiful glass, the child will definitely want to try it. In addition, it is convenient to take it with you for a walk as a snack.

Since spinach is combined with many vegetables and fruits, it can be added to smoothies, for example, with apple, banana, kiwi, lime, cucumber, celery. As the basis of the drink, you can use water, milk, yogurt, kefir. If your child is not allergic to any of the components of the smoothie, you can safely mix them in a drink. Many moms like to mask the taste of healthy but not favorite foods, and smoothies are one of the best ways to do this.

You can add crushed oatmeal, previously steamed in boiling water or hot milk, or boiled rice to the cocktail. Then you get a great summer breakfast.

Casserole

Casserole is one of the most common children’s dishes. There are many variations of this dish. A child from one and a half years old can cook, for example, a casserole with noodles and spinach.

Ingredients:

• 500 g of spinach leaves or shoots;
• 2 chicken eggs;
• 2 Art. liter. sugar;
• 1 glass of noodles;
• juice of 1 lemon;
• 1 st. l. butter.

Preparation:

1. Boil spinach in water for about 3-5 minutes, drain.
2. Grind with a meat grinder or blender.
3. Beat eggs with sugar.
4. Boil noodles, drain.
5. Mix spinach, noodles and egg mixture and add butter.
6. Put in a greased form and bake in an oven preheated to 180–200 ° C for 15–20 minutes.

The same recipe is easy to make other spinach casseroles. It is enough to replace the noodles with boiled rice or mashed potatoes, sprinkle the finished dish with finely grated cheese, and a new healthy dish for the child is ready.

Omelet

For a child of 1 year old, you can add spinach to an omelet, and for children under 3 years old, it needs to be steamed. This breakfast will invigorate you for the whole day.

Ingredients:

• 100 g spinach leaves;
• a quarter cup of milk;
• 1 egg;
• 1 tsp butter;
• a little salt.

Preparation:

1. Stew the washed spinach in oil for 10 minutes.
2. Beat the egg with milk, salt a little.
3. Add mixture to stewed spinach.
4. Lubricate the saucepan with oil, pour the resulting mass into it;
5. Cook for 20 minutes in a steam bath with a lid on.

Contraindications and precautions

Although spinach is an extremely healthy food, its composition is not so harmless. When using it in baby food, it should be borne in mind that old leaves accumulate oxalic acid, which is harmful to the child’s body, so be sure to choose only young shoots and leaves up to 5 cm long or add dairy products to dishes that neutralize it – milk, butter, cream.

Fresh leaves and shoots are stored in the refrigerator for no more than 2-3 days, since during longer storage they release harmful nitric acid salts.

Children with kidney disease, liver problems, metabolic disorders should not eat dishes with spinach. If you have any chronic diseases, it would be useful to consult a pediatrician.

Conclusion

Spinach recipes for a child will help mom diversify the menu with delicious and healthy dishes. Among the many options for preparing this vegetable, there are sure to be those that the baby will like, and adding it to familiar dishes will significantly increase their nutritional value. Eating spinach regularly with simple precautions will bring exceptional benefits to the body of a growing child.