How do you make a homemade baby rice cereal delicious enough that you’ll want to eat it alongside baby too?
Learn how to make a creamy toasted cinnamon quinoa porridge that’s layered with coconut yogurt and a blueberry compote!
OT FEEDING TIP:
6-12 months: When serving the porridge, you can spoon-feed the baby or give them a pre-loaded so they can bring the spoon to mouth. If the baby is not opening their mouth or taking the puree at first, you can place a small amount on the tray so they can explore the texture through touch and smell.
12 months and older: For yourself or an odler kiddo you could add a little sweetener (uch as honey) and toppings (such as coconut chips or crushed nuts) to give the puree a nice texture.
Quinoa Porridge
Ingredients
- 1 cup of quinoa
- 1/2 cup of almond milk
- ⅛ teaspoon of cinnamon.
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
Directions
- Add oil to a cold saucepan until it starts to shimmer. Add the cinnamon and quinoa to the oil and stir them together until the spiced oil mixture coats the quinoa and you can smell the cinnamon becoming more fragrant (about 1-2minutes).
- Add the almond milk to the saucepan and stir the quinoa and milk together. Raise the heat until the mixture comes to a light simmer and let it cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Spoon the quinoa into a bowl and set aside.
Blueberry Compote
Ingredients
- 2 cups wild blueberries
- Zest from 1 lemon
- Juice from ½ lemon
Directions
- Add 2 cups of wild organic frozen blueberries to a saucepan. Break up any large clumps with a wooden spoon.
- Stir in the lemon zest and lemon juice. Sprinkle in 1/8 teaspoon of ground cardamom. Stir until combined.
- Once the mixture comes to a gentle simmer and the juices start to release (about 5 min.) turn off the heat.
- Using a hand blender, blend the blueberries until they start to break apart and make a textured puree.
- Scoop the berries into a bowl and set aside.
To assemble the porridge mixture into a 2 ounce container, first add a large scoop of quinoa porridge, then a large scoop of unsweetened coconut yogurt and then one spoonful of blueberry compote. Stir together to combine before serving. Enjoy!
Grain variations: you could also follow the same porridge cooking steps using different grains such as rolled oats or millet. You may need to adjust the amount of milk you use due to the varying way the grains absorb the milk
Yogurt variations: you could also use unsweetened full fat Greek yogurt, sheep’s milk yogurt, goat’s milk yogurt, cashew yogurt, or almond yogurt.
Milk variations: you could use peanut cow’s milk, pea protein milk, oat milk, coconut milk or any kind of nut milk
Fruit variations: you could follow the same directions for the compote but use different berries such as strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries.