Devansh is now three and a half, and I still find a good porridge recipe useful. “My child doesn’t drink milk” is one of the most common concerns of moms of toddlers.Devansh, no longer a toddler, still isn’t a big fan of milk. So I add milk to his food, especially his breakfast meal. This is something I have been doing since he turned one. Luckily he still doesn’t mind having slightly mushy food like porridge or sheera for breakfast. So I know he’s not going to be hungry till his snack time in school, which would have been my concern if he drank just milk. Another advantage is that since not much chewing is required, he doesn’t take forever to finish his breakfast. As it is, time is a rare commodity in the morning on a school day.
When I had posted the link to sweet potato porridge recipe on my Facebook page, Ruchita had commented that she adds carrots and roasted suji along with sweet potato in the porridge. This seemed like a great idea and I decided to try this porridge for my three and a half year old baby. :-) Devansh liked the porridge and I got a new recipe in the bargain. If you want to adapt this porridge recipe for grownups, make a thick halwa and add dry fruits.
Porridge for Babies, How to Make Sweet Potato, Carrot, Semolina Porridge Recipe
Print Recipe
Porridge recipe made using sweet potato, carrot and semolina—complete meal for babies, healthy breakfast option for toddlers and kids.
Author Mukta Tikekar
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp organic sooji (rava/semolina)
- 4-5 tbsp steamed and mashed sweet potato
- 4-5 tbsp steamed and mashed carrot
- 1-2 tbsp homemade ghee (clarified butter)
- 1 clove (see note below)
- 1-2 cardamoms (powdered)
- approx 1 cup milk (see note below)
- organic jaggery to taste
Instructions
Heat a kadai, add rava/sooji, roast on medium-low heat till rava starts to change color, and then add ghee.
Mix ghee with rava properly and then add clove.
Stir once, and then add milk and powdered cardamoms.
Keep stirring till the mixture begins to thicken, and then add mashed sweet potato and carrot. (You don’t want to cook the porridge for more than a minute after adding sweet potato and carrot as they’re already steamed/cooked. Add them after rava has cooked properly in milk.)
Stir for a minute or so, and then turn off heat.
Add jaggery and mix well till the jaggery dissolves in the mixture. (Sweet potato and carrots have their inherent sweetness, so you don’t need to add too much jaggery.)
Add some milk if required in case you want to serve your child runny porridge.
If you’re making this for grownups, cook the porridge till you achieve halwa-like consistency, and add dry fruits like almonds and cashew nuts.
Notes
- For babies younger than one year, cook the porridge in water and then add breast milk or formula.
- Don’t cook the porridge for more than half a minute after adding jaggery as it’ll cause milk to curdle. It’s best to turn off heat and then add jaggery.
- I use powdered jaggery as it dissolves fast.
- If you haven’t introduced clove and cardamom in your baby’s diet, please check with his/her pediatrician before doing the same. You might find this link about introducing spices in your baby’s food useful: https://www.babycenter.in/x1016997/when-and-how-should-i-add-spices-in-my-babys-food
Tip:
- You can steam (or cook in pressure cooker) and mash sweet potato and carrots in bulk and then freeze them (separately) in an airtight container like Tupperware for future use. These can come in handy to make sweet potato porridge, sweet potato lentil soup, poha carrot kheer.
8 thoughts on “Vegetable Porridge for Babies”
Really nice recipe gonna try ds for my 1yr old son. Bt im confusing abt how to add formula milk in ds recipe. ? May I add apple in this recipe. ? Thanks
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Valar since your son's one year old, you can use regular milk for your son. Cow/buffalo milk is not advised for babies below one. However if you want to use formula milk, cook the porridge in water, make it of a thickish consistency and then add formula milk in the end. You can add apple if you wish, steam the apple first.
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Sweet potato and carrots is a combination I had never tried before. Surprisingly all of us at home really liked this one. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
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Glad you’ll liked the porridge Alpa. It’s like a sheera with carrot and sweet potato added in.
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Loved this. My one year old had stopped eating completely because he hated food. But he loves this! His appetite has picked up hugely thanks to this. THANK YOU!!!
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So glad your son liked the porridge. One of my readers had given me the idea of this recipe. :)
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Hi,
My baby is 6 months old. And I am really liking the receipe. Will definitely try it out, but i was wondering for how many days steamed carrot and sweat potato can be kept in fridge? Being a working mother it will be an added advantage.
ThanksReply
Both steamed carrot and sweet potato freeze well. 2 weeks easily. Can stay longer also but best to use within a couple of weeks. Just store in good quality freezer-safe, airtight container.
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