Simple Vegetable Soup

As I wrote in my last post, I decided to introduce Henry to new flavors through soup as inspired by “French Kids Eat Everything” by Karen Billon. After two weeks, Henry has tried out several flavors of vegetable soup by bottle. So far, the list includes spinach, leek, pea, celery and zucchini. He has been receiving about three ounces of soup each day divided into morning and afternoon servings. Each time we test out a new flavor, he takes a few sips, then pauses for a moment, and then keeps drinking until it’s all gone. 

Henry reaching for a bottle of creamy pea soup.

Here’s the basic recipe:

• Slice two cups of vegetables. You can also include a handful of chopped fresh herbs such as mint, sage, parsley or basil.
• Boil vegetables in two cups of water for about 7 minutes.
• Allow to cool slightly. Blend until there are no large chunks of vegetable remaining.

The soup can be served in this form to older children and adults. Daddy and I enjoyed the leek soup; it was mild and fresh on a warm summer day.

If you are making this soup for baby and plan to serve it in a bottle or sippy cup, then strain the soup so it can easily pour through a bottle nipple. I am using a fine tea strainer and Dr. Brown’s Level 3 bottle nipples. You can also use a sippy cup without a no-spill filter; I found that vegetable fibers tend clog the filter. Pour the soup into a bottle for storage in the fridge or freeze it in ice cube containers. Add one to two ounces (2-4 ice cubes) of soup to a regular bottle feeding of breastmilk or formula. Remember not to add any salt to baby’s portion of soup.

Mixing snow peas with an immersion blender.

I use an immersion blender for this recipe, but I think a standard blender would work too. I did investigate a baby food maker, but I was not impressed enough by the Amazon reviews to make a splurge purchase. The equipment I have is working well enough, so I don’t plan to test these out unless I find a great deal on craigslist.