How to Make Baby Food in Your Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker
Wondering how to make baby food in your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or other brand of electric pressure cooker? Baby food is so easy to make at home—plus your pressure cooker helps you whip up quick and healthy meals for your baby! PLUS, one lucky reader will receive a copy of the cookbook and a baby food accessories package.
Your pressure cooker is your secret weapon in making healthy baby food fast! Spend your time with your kid—not in the kitchen!
Whether you’re starting with baby’s first foods or wanting something more complex for older babies, you can make it in your electric pressure cooker!
To celebrate the release of our new cookbook, we are giving away a copy of the cookbook plus a full baby food accessories package to one lucky reader! Scroll to the bottom of the post to enter by Sunday, August 25th, for your chance to win!
With our first baby, we tried making a few batches of baby food at home, and we quickly got discouraged. I vividly remember stirring and stirring a batch of prunes on the stovetop—they just wouldn’t soften and thinking there had to be a better way!
Enter the Instant Pot!
Our pressure cooker has completely changed the way we make baby food. The recipes are quick and easy enough that we can fit them in any night of the week.
Benefits of Making Baby Food from Scratch
Why make baby food from scratch? Ultimately, it’s all about control! When you cook for your baby, you control everything from the ingredients to flavor combinations to the texture. You can tailor the food to your baby based on their preferences.
One thing that really surprised me while writing this book is that your baby’s food preferences start to solidify starting at NINE MONTHS OLD.
SAVE MONEY!!!
Buying baby food from the store is EXPENSIVE! One pouch of baby food can cost $1 to $2 each. It really adds up fast! Making baby food in the pressure gives you dozens of servings for a few bucks a batch.
(Don’t get me wrong, we’re not knocking baby food pouches! They’re amazing for easy eating when we’re on the go! They’re just budget-busters if we had to use one or two at every meal!)
Fresh just tastes better. If you’ve ever tasted commercial baby food, you’ll know that home-cooked Instant Pot baby food just tastes better! (Seriously—especially with the beans and meats, even a baby can tell the difference!)
Wide Variety
With commercial baby food, you’re limited to the flavor combinations and textures available at your local store. When you make your own, you can mix and match your flavors for blends based on your baby’s favorites.
Eat Like Family
One of my favorite things about homemade baby food is using ingredients I’m already using in my kitchen to feed my big kids. For example, I’ll buy a big bag of carrots—the big kids get carrot sticks for lunch, and I can peel up a few extra to make fresh baby food carrot puree.
We often try to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season in my family. When you make your own baby food, your baby can experience the same fresh and flavorful produce as the rest of your family.
Easy Storage
We like to cook a few batches of Instant Pot baby food each week so we have a variety of foods to rotate for each meal.
We freeze it in baby food trays, but you could use large ice cube trays or those egg muffin trays. Once frozen, I like to transfer the cubes to a freezer storage bag (be sure to label so you don’t have to guess between carrots, peaches, and sweet potatoes!)
Baby food keeps in the coldest part of the freezer for 1 to 2 months.
Why Make Baby Food in the Instant Pot?
Maximize Nutrient Retention
Making baby food at home has traditionally been done by boiling fruits and vegetables in a pot. In the boiling process, some of the nutrients leech into the water.
However, when you make baby food in the pressure cooker, you use much less water. Plus, you use the water to help blend the food. This maximizes the nutrients and flavor of your baby food.
Quicker Cook Times
Since a pressure cooker cooks faster than on the stove top, you will be able to cook fresh food fast!
Plus, if you choose to use frozen ingredients, you can save time peeling and chopping as well as a shorter cook time.
Hands-off Cooking
Making baby food in the Instant Pot also allows you to walk away and get other things done while your food cooks. You can change diapers, play with your baby, or even sneak a minute for yourself!
I also like to make my baby food in just one day a week, so I’ll start preparing the next batch while the first one is cooking. When the first food is done, empty it into a bowl and reserve the water in a glass. That way you don’t have to wait for the first batch to cool before pressure cooking the next one.
Common Questions about Making Your Own Baby Food
Is homemade Instant Pot baby food safe?
There’s so much more to food safety than simply dicing food into small pieces and introducing just one new ingredient at a time. The cookbook has several pages specifically dedicated to food safety.
About dicing food: the official guideline is food should be less than half an inch around; however, you’ll want to start small and work your way up. You know your baby—if they tend not to chew their food, you can always err on the side of smaller. (We recommend a good pair of kitchen shears!)
Do I use the steam button or do I cook at high pressure?
Since we write our recipes to work in any brand of pressure cooker, all of our recipes cook at high pressure. However, if you prefer to steam them, that will work great too.
Do I need a fancy blender to make baby food?
The good news here is that it’s baby food, not fine french cooking. Don’t be afraid to mix up the recipes—add a minute or two of cook time if it helps you blend, or take a little time off if you want your puree to have a little more texture. Just make sure meats are cooked to safe internal temperatures.
Steam the fruits and vegetables, transfer to a bowl to cool, then blend to desired consistency.
About the Instant Pot Baby Food Cookbook
The Instant Pot Baby Food and Toddler Food Cookbook is full of trustworthy recipes that work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, Mealthy MultiPot, and the Power Pressure Cooker.
Each of our recipes has been tested to take the guesswork out of cooking for you. The cookbook also includes detailed descriptions on
- How to freeze and thaw baby food safely
- How to batch cook baby food in the pressure cooker
- How to use the pot-in-pot method to cook multiple types of baby food at the same time
- What equipment you need for making baby food in the Instant Pot / electric pressure cooker
- How to know your baby is ready for solids and how much they should eat
- Tons of tips for making mealtimes pleasant for the whole family
The cookbook is NOW ON SALE wherever books are sold—at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or order it from your favorite independent bookstore!
TEACH YOUR CHILD ABOUT THE HEALTHY, DELICIOUS FOODS YOU LOVE—FROM THEIR FIRST BITE!
The Instant Pot Baby Food and Toddler Food Cookbook starts with simple single-ingredient fruit and vegetable purees, then expands to more complex flavors and textures like:
- Banana Blueberry Pear Puree (page 68)
- Chicken & Pasta in Butternut Squash Puree (page 95)
- Fresh Garden Vegetable and Pasta Medley (page 97)
- Healthy Carrot Smash Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (page 100)
If you know someone who is having a baby soon, we’d love to have you share this post with them!
Instant Pot Baby Food Carrot Puree
Steaming carrots in the Instant Pot makes them easier to digest, and their sweet flavor will make them a hit with your sweet babe!
Ingredients
- 8 fresh carrots, peeled and cut into approximately 2-inch pieces*
Instructions
- Place a steamer basket in the bottom of the pressure cooking pot and add 1 cup water. Place the carrots inside the basket. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 4 minutes cook time.
- When the cook time ends, turn off the pressure cooker. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release. When the float valve drops, carefully remove the lid.
- Remove the carrots from the steamer basket, reserving the cooking water. Allow to cool until ready to blend, about 20 minutes.
- Place the steamed carrots in a blender jar or food processor. Add 3/4 cup reserved cooking water and blend until very smooth. Add more water if needed to blend, but use the minimum amount necessary.
Notes
* If you'd rather, you can use prepackaged peeled carrots, baby carrots, or frozen carrots. If you're using frozen carrots, use 2 cups frozen carrots, a 3-minute cook time, and a quick pressure release.
** Leafy and root vegetables can contain nitrates from the soil (both commercially prepared and homemade will have these). If you're concerned about nitrates in your baby's food, discard the cooking water and use fresh water.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1/4 cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 13Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 10mgCarbohydrates: 3gFiber: 1gSugar: 1gProtein: 0g
Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.
More pressure cooker / Instant Pot how-to guides
- How to Cook Pasta in the Instant Pot / Electric Pressure Cooker
- How to Make Perfect Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot Eggs
- How to Pressure Cook Frozen Chicken Breasts
- How to Use the Pot in Pot Method in Your Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot
- Which Instant Pot Button to Use?
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Cookbook & Instant Pot Baby Food Accessories Package Giveaway
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I followed the recipe and the carrots came out really crunchy still. Isn’t baby food supposed to be soft? I’m a little worried it’ll be too tough on my baby’s digestive system.
You should never use reserved water for blending carrots. Use some fresh water. Reserve has too much vitamin A for babies.
In page 10 of our cookbook, we talk about using fresh water if you’re worried about nitrates and carrots. I haven’t seen any guidance from the AAP regarding vitamin A and carrots in baby food, but I’d love to see some if you have a link! Definitely use fresh water if you’re worried about vitamin A levels as well!
yes i used to make my own some peas and bannas he like it so i made it