How to make homemade baby food in a pressure cooker quick. From Instant Pot mashed sweet potatoes, to pureed carrots, applesauce and more. Now you’ll know exactly what you’re feeding your baby.
I will say that with my first two daughters I didn’t make any homemade baby food for them. It was inconvenient and took too long in my opinion but once my third daughter came around it was a bit easier. But not as easy as it is today with our 101+ Instant Pot recipes.
If you’re wondering how to make homemade baby food it is a cinch now using a pressure cooker and blender. Now you will know exactly what is in the baby food you feed your child and can add different vegetables and fruits together creating just the right consistency and flavors they will love.
Homemade Baby Food Recipes
This recipe is specific to pureed carrots that are great for babies, but using these steps you can make baby food of any kind at home the same way….like our pressure cooker applesauce that is naturally sweetened and even my kids nowadays love it.
You can use this process to make pureed vegetables for little ones who are just starting on solids. As they get bigger you can certainly move on to cooking frozen chicken in Instant Pot style to so tender that it can be cooled and ground until smooth for them.
How long to steam veggies to puree for baby?
You can use this pressure cooker cook times for vegetables chart for timing. Of course you want to choose rainbow carrots, sweet potato or butternut squash that will mash into a smooth texture easily. When they get older you can include others like broccoli to steam that can be left whole, but very soft.
So there are stages right? We are talking most specifically to really little ones who are just beginning. How to steam vegetables (mostly) and fruit until so tender that they are pureed and very very smooth. As they get bigger you could leave a bit larger chunks too. You will want a few things to get started like;
What do you need to make your own baby food?
A pressure cooker is the best method to steak to very tender – I have a 6 qt. Instant Pot. I would also highly recommend getting small food processor, immersion blender or a baby bullet works great. We used an immersion blender to make this Pureed Soup right in the pot itself to make things more convenient.
Homemade Baby Food Recipe
Equipment
- 1 blender
Ingredients
- 2 cup carrots, rainbow variety if possible, peeled and sliced
- 1/3 cup water, or vegetable broth
Instructions
- Peel all of your rainbow carrots and slice them into dials….3″ size
- Put them into your Instant Pot or pressure cooker with your 1/3 c water, close lid and steam valve.
- Set to soup setting for 15 minutes….20 minutes if you want them really pureed later and very smooth.
- Do a quick release, drain water but set that aside to use later.
- Put carrots in a bowl and cool them under cold water, or in the fridge.
- Put carrots into blender, food processor or baby bullet and puree until they are the consistency you desire.
- Put in a bowl and slowly add the carrot juice reserved from cooking in until it is as thick or thin as you want.
- Serve
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Is homemade baby food better?
Of course the answer would be subjective depending on who you asked, but the general consensus is YES! It is less expensive than store bought. Average store bought is $45/mo vs. homemade that is $15/mo. That is a huge savings . You know EXACTLY what you’re feeding your baby. You can omit all preservatives, salt or sugar this way. Homemade avoids any possibility of allergic reactions or cross contaminations.
Is making your own baby food worth it?
I would say before the invention of inexpensive hand held blenders and pressure cookers such as the Instant Pot I would say no. BUT now it is so simple to throw in fresh vegetables with a bit of water and have them come out SO tender in no time at all.
What is the best food for baby to start with?
You could easily make peas, green beans, and put a bit of fruit in them as well to sweeten it up naturally. Ground, cooked, single-grain cereal or infant cereal mixed with breast milk or formula. Followed by mashed bananas, avocado or cooked beans that have been mashed. Pureed carrots (like these), peas or sweet potatoes.
We’ve made sweet potato in air fryer too and it comes out super tender for mashing. Cooked and pureed meat or poultry would be last….
How long does homemade baby food last?
In the refrigerator stored in a closed container it is safely stored for 48 hours, 72 hours by some has said to be fine. Here’s how we made pressure cooker pumpkin too that would be a great addition to these carrots or applesauce. If you want to make a batch of pressure cooker carrots for everyone else in the family to enjoy too at dinnertime we have that!
FAQ
Yes! Using the pressure cooker function you can use any electric brand with this high pressure function to make pureed carrots, sweet potatoes or even meats for toddlers. We will show you how to make it here, easy, healthy food for babies.
Now that can vary depending on what you are making, preferences and any allergies you’re dealing with. I would start with water or breast milk. As they get older you can progress into broth or fruit juices to thin our pureed vegetables and fruits.
