Baby food recipe: meat slow cooker stew

Eating iron and zinc rich foods such as red meat, chicken, lentils, nuts, fish, seafood, and wholegrains can be useful for your baby to support healthy growth and a healthy immune system. Ideally offer these foods twice daily to increase the chances of them meeting their iron and zinc needs.

Ingredients

3 tbsp oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp curry powder
600 g red meat (chuck/blade/casserole cuts)
1 tbsp flour (wheat/rice flour)
1 can chickpeas, drained
400 g canned tomatoes
150 mls low salt stock or water
1 cup spinach (diced)
1 carrot cut into cubes
Kumara cut into cubes

1. Sauté onion and garlic in oil. Add curry powder for 1-2 mins.

2. Add diced beef and brown slightly. Add flour and coat meat.

3. Place onion, garlic, and meat into the slower cooker.

4. Add chickpeas, tomatoes, spinach, carrot and kumara.

5. Slow cook for 8 hours.

6. Serve in a bowl, OR for older children and adults shred the meat and put it in pita pocket with salad, and then serve the liquid as a soup alongside it.

Puree texture:

Blitz the meal into a smooth puree using a hand blender or food processor.

Lumpy texture:

You may be able to serve the meal without altering the texture, OR with a potato masher, mash down on the soup ingredients until they are soft and then shred the meat with a fork.

Finger food:

Take out pieces of meat and shred them with a fork. Offer the shredded meat, cooked carrot and cooked kūmara. Blitz the rest of the liquid and serve alongside finger foods as a ‘dip’.

Jenny Douglas is a registered dietitian with around 20 years experience working with families and is a leading expert on baby and child nutrition. Co-author to the YUM cookbook with Nadia Lim, Jenny is also director of Jumpstart Nutrition – a company of dietitians working to improve nutrition for families. Jenny holds regular workshops around NZ and sees families in her Dunedin clinics or online. Visit jumpstartnutrition.co.nz, Facebook.com/JenniferDouglasDietitian or @jumpstart_kids_nutrition_nz on Instagram.