Hearty, Healthy Baby Food – Scrumptious Soups
Expand your little one’s healthy baby food menu with these delicious soup recipes.
Soup is the perfect food for babies, with a texture they love.
The fresh ingredients are cooked together, retaining their goodness – and you can use your imagination to create the ideal combination for your baby.
Without a doubt, these recipes, suitable for babies from 10 months of age, are simply … soup-er!
REMEMBER: If any of the ingredients listed here are new to your baby, then apply the four day rule when introducing them.
This will help you identify and prevent potential allergies and digestive problems.
How to get the texture right
When making soup for baby, an important consideration is the consistency.
This is because a baby learning to spoon-feed himself will find a runny baby soup very hard to handle.
Instead, try to achieve a texture that clings to the spoon quite well.
You could do this in one of the following ways –
- Add grated raw potato towards the end of the cooking time – remember to cook the soup for a further 15 mins after the potato is added.
- Add grains or cereals to the soup – try barley, oatmeal or wheat germ.
- Place a slice of crustless bread on top of the soup and allow to sit for 10 mins, until it has absorbed as much liquid as possible. Then mix it into the soup – stirring well – until any lumps have broken down.
- Add purees of beans or lentils.
Whilst all of these methods are effective, the addition of cereals, grains, lentils or beans also adds an extra element of nutrition to the dish, helping you create spoonable, healthy baby food!
Find out about using frozen and canned veggies in your soup recipes.
So let’s get cooking …
Chicken And Sweet Potato Soup
This recipe gives you quite a large portion of soup – but it’s so delicious that you can serve it to the rest of the family, too! Other family members may choose to add a little salt to theirs – but don’t add any during the cooking time so that your baby’s portion remains salt-free. If you’re making it just for baby, decrease the quantities, or simply freeze the leftovers.
We love this recipe because – although it looks time consuming – it’s actually very simple to make.
The basis of the soup is a hearty stock, which you are creating by boiling the whole chicken up with the veggies. Tasty… and very nutritious.
1 whole chicken (about 2lbs)
48 fl oz (6 cups) water
1 stick of celery (leave whole)
1 onion (peel but leave whole)
2 cloves
8 sprigs of fresh parsley
1 sprig of fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried thyme)
1 bay leaf
1 whole bulb of garlic (remove the papery outer skin, then cut in half crosswise)
3 medium red potatoes (peel and dice)
3 medium sweet potatoes (peel and dice)
- First, remove all the skin and fat from the chicken.
- Put the chicken in a large pot and pour in the water.
- Bring the water to the boil and simmer for for 10 mins.
- Stick the cloves into the onion and add to the pot. Then add the celery stick, garlic, parsley, thyme and the bay leaf.
- Simmer for 50 mins, until the chicken is tender and coming away from the bone.
- Using a colander, strain the contents of the pot into a large bowl. Remove the chicken from the colander and set aside, then discard the rest of the contents of the colander.
- Pour the strained liquid back into the cooking pot and bring to the boil. Add the diced white potatoes, reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 mins, covered, until tender. Remove the potato with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add the diced sweet potato to the pot and simmer, covered, for 5-10 mins, until tender.
- Pour the sweet potato/stock mixture into a food processor and blend together, then return the liquid to the cooking pot.
- Remove the chicken from the bones with your fingers (it will simply fall off!) and pull into small pieces.
- Add the cooked white potato and the chicken to the cooking pot and warm through.
- You can serve the soup to your baby at this point if he’s happy with textured foods – otherwise, you can puree his portion in the blender.
use coconut in this yummy soup...
Chickpea Soup (Garbanzo Bean Soup)
8 oz (1 cup) canned (low sodium) or pre-cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1/2 onion, chopped
1 medium potato
1/2 garlic clove
2 tbsp olive oil
18 fl oz (2 1/4 cups) water
2 tbsp cream (optional but yummy)
- Saute the onion and garlic in the oil for 10 mins.
- Peel the potato and cut into 1/2 in cubes.
- Add the chickpeas (drained) and the potatoes to the pan.
- Add the water and simmer, covered, for 15-20 mins.
- Transfer to a blender and puree until creamy.
- Swirl the cream into the soup (if using) and serve!
If you want to freeze this soup, do so BEFORE adding the cream.
Bean Soup With Roasted Red Pepper
2 small red bell peppers
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 x 15 oz can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
14 fl oz (1 3/4 cups)
pinch freshly ground black pepper (optional)
- Grill/broil the red peppers until blackened. Place them in a paper bag, seal and cool for 30 mins. Then remove the skin, stem and seeds.
- Chop and set aside.
- Over a medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in the oil for 5 mins, until the onion is tender.
- Add the red pepper and saute for 3 mins.
- Add the chicken stock and beans, stirring well. Cook for 5 mins.
- Puree the soup, then return to the heat until warmed through.
Beef Soup With Mushrooms
Another family favourite – but this freezes well if you’re making it just for baby.
8 oz (around 1 cup) boneless, lean beef, cut into 1″ pieces
3 oz (just under 1/2 cup) pearl barley
28 fl oz (3 1/2 cups) water
2 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp parsley
6oz (3/4 cup) canned lima beans, drained and rinsed
6 oz (around 2 cups) sliced fresh mushrooms
- Place the beef, barley and water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.
- Remove any foam with a spoon.
- Add the carrots, onions, celery, black pepper and parsley, then return to the boil.
- Reduce the heat and cover. Simmer for 45 mins.
- Stir in the mushrooms and lima beans, then cover again and simmer for a further 15 mins, until the beef is tender.
- Chop as necessary.
Chicken Noodle Soup
16 fl oz (2 cups) homemade chicken stock
8 oz (1 cup) cooked chicken, diced
2 oz (1/4 cup) sliced celery
2 oz (1/4 cup) sliced spring onions (or scallions/green onions)
pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp parsley
8 oz (around 3/4 cup) uncooked noodles
1 tbsp flour
8 fl oz (1 cup) milk
- Pour the stock into a large saucepan.
- Add the chicken, celery and onion and bring to the boil.
- Add the noodles, then cover.
- Reduce the heat and simmer until the noodles are almost tender (8-10 mins).
- Combine the flour with a small amount of the milk until smooth.
- Add the rest of the milk, then stir into the soup.
- Continue to cook, until thickened.
Tasty Cheeseburger Soup
8 oz (1 cup) minced/ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
6 fl oz (3/4 cup) homemade beef stock
8 oz (1 cup) potato, cubed
1 stick celery
2 tbsp flour
10 fl oz (1 1 /4 cups) milk
4 oz (1 cup) grated Cheddar
- In a large saucepan, cook the beef with the celery, onion and garlic until the meat is no longer pink.
- Drain well, then stir in the beef stock.
- Add the potatoes and reduce the heat.
- Cover and simmer for 20 mins, until the potatoes are tender.
- Meanwhile, stir 2 fl oz (1/4 cup) of the milk into the flour until smooth. Slowly add this to the saucepan.
- Bring to the boil, then cook and stir for a few minutes until thickened.
- Stir in the rest of the milk, heat through and then stir in the cheese until melted.
More soup recipes on our blog
Hearty Vegetable Soup With Oats
Vegetarian Pumpkin Soup with Apple
We hope your tiny diner enjoys these satisfying, healthy baby food recipes … which will taste all the better because they’re cooked by Mum!
More Recipes and Tips...
When to introduce meat to baby
Introducing spices, herbs and garlic
Sweet potato recipes (including sweet potato soup)
