I had some huge, beautiful, organic raspberries from our CSA going bad (we are getting a small handful of raspberries from our backyard bushes every day or so, plus we had just filled an EasyLunchbox with some more from my sister's house, and would be visiting her again before we'd eaten them all up.) And a bag full of spinach bunches (with stems) from our CSA that were over a week old.
I didn't want to just wait until the berries went bad, but I had more than enough raspberries to put in the one lunch Z would need before going back to my sister's house again (and getting even more berries,) so I thought about freezing them. Or feeding them to the baby somehow... *I* like raspberry vinaigrette dressing and assorted fresh fruits on my spinach salad... Hmm...
Ingredients:
4 cups spinach leaves and stems
1 cup raspberries - mashed and with the seeds strained out*
Water for washing
*To de-seed the berries, I used a mesh strainer and a spoon and mashed the juice and pulp through. I saved the seeds and the pulp that I couldn't get through and tossed them into my smoothies.
Directions:
Step 1: Rinse the raspberries. While still wet, place in medium or large saucepan and set aside. Wash the spinach thoroughly. It often still has sand particles [aka: silicon dioxide - so tiny particles of glass] and there's a risk for E. coli. Even if you got it from a trusted source, who knows what you exposed it to on the way home or in your fridge! Do not drain or leave to dry. You should not need to add additional water for cooking, since enough of it clings to the spinach and berries after rinsing.
Step 2: If you have spinach with long stems, like from a farmer's market or CSA share, chop the stems into small pieces. You can chop the leaves into smaller pieces or leave whole. Place into saucepan with berries.
Step 3: On Medium heat (4-6,) cover pot and let sit for a few minutes. Check the spinach. Should be wilted but still a bright green color. If not wilted yet, wait another few minutes.
I looked up how to cook the spinach properly, but it didn't specify what setting to have the burner at, so I chose Medium. And I cooked mine a bit longer, which didn't seem to hurt anything.
Step 4: In blender or food processor, or with an immersion blender, puree spinach-raspberry mix until smooth-ish.
Step 5: Store and/or freeze in individual serving-size portions.
I missed a critical step, in that I forgot to de-seed the berries. Doh! (I perfected my technique the next time I made something for her with them, which I'll post about later.)
Baby E has her Daddy's gag reflex, and she kept gagging on the seeds. So I don't know if the flavor was too tart also, or if her problem was just with the seeds. I tried adding applesauce to it, which seemed to help, since the seeds weren't so concentrated and the apples sweetened it up. After much wincing and gagging and stalling, she finally finished the one ounce trial.
We'll save the rest for when she's older.
I didn't want to just wait until the berries went bad, but I had more than enough raspberries to put in the one lunch Z would need before going back to my sister's house again (and getting even more berries,) so I thought about freezing them. Or feeding them to the baby somehow... *I* like raspberry vinaigrette dressing and assorted fresh fruits on my spinach salad... Hmm...
Raspberry-Spinach Baby Mash
Makes approximately 1.5 cups
4 cups spinach leaves and stems
1 cup raspberries - mashed and with the seeds strained out*
Water for washing
*To de-seed the berries, I used a mesh strainer and a spoon and mashed the juice and pulp through. I saved the seeds and the pulp that I couldn't get through and tossed them into my smoothies.
Directions:
Step 1: Rinse the raspberries. While still wet, place in medium or large saucepan and set aside. Wash the spinach thoroughly. It often still has sand particles [aka: silicon dioxide - so tiny particles of glass] and there's a risk for E. coli. Even if you got it from a trusted source, who knows what you exposed it to on the way home or in your fridge! Do not drain or leave to dry. You should not need to add additional water for cooking, since enough of it clings to the spinach and berries after rinsing.
Step 2: If you have spinach with long stems, like from a farmer's market or CSA share, chop the stems into small pieces. You can chop the leaves into smaller pieces or leave whole. Place into saucepan with berries.
Step 3: On Medium heat (4-6,) cover pot and let sit for a few minutes. Check the spinach. Should be wilted but still a bright green color. If not wilted yet, wait another few minutes.
I looked up how to cook the spinach properly, but it didn't specify what setting to have the burner at, so I chose Medium. And I cooked mine a bit longer, which didn't seem to hurt anything.
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| (those yellow things are golden raspberries from my garden) |
Step 5: Store and/or freeze in individual serving-size portions.
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| (Baby Bok is the green stuff on the left) |
The Verdict
No thanks, Mama!
Baby E has her Daddy's gag reflex, and she kept gagging on the seeds. So I don't know if the flavor was too tart also, or if her problem was just with the seeds. I tried adding applesauce to it, which seemed to help, since the seeds weren't so concentrated and the apples sweetened it up. After much wincing and gagging and stalling, she finally finished the one ounce trial.
We'll save the rest for when she's older.
My Colonel Sanders really likes spinach with blueberry baby puree. Sometimes I even add in some banana and she is in heaven. :-)
ReplyDeleteI also like to made some organic food from my backyard too. But raspberry? For baby food puree? Hemm, maybe i should try it
ReplyDelete