This Spinach and Apple Baby Food Puree is high in iron and a perfect baby food puree to introduce around 6 months. With the addition of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, this stage two combination puree tastes amazing! Great Stage 2 Baby Food or 6+ months and up.
I have several recipes on the blog that include spinach in the recipe –
Oats + Spinach + Avocado Puree
Apple + Spinach + Pea Puree
Plum + Blueberry + Spinach Puree with Cilantro
Kale + Spinach + Apples + Zucchini Puree
All of those recipes are great and your baby will love them, but I wanted to have a recipe in the arsenal that goes above and beyond just a hint of spinach in the recipe. I wanted to have a recipe that maximizes spinach and all of it’s health benefits to the extreme of all extremes.
There is one simple reason for this – iron.
Benefits of Iron in Baby + Toddlers
Sounds super boring, but let me explain. Baby is born with roughly 6 months of iron reserves in their bodies. Once baby reaches 6 months of age, those reserves start to diminish. That is why you will see a ton of baby products that feature ‘Iron Fortified’ on their labels. Iron Fortified is just a fancy marketing term that means that companies are adding in processed iron into baby food products. To me, that is a lazy and mostly unhealthy way to get iron into baby. Instead, let’s just feed baby healthy and flavorful foods that are high in the nutrients they need.
Beside iron, this Spinach + Apple Baby Puree is serving up ridiculous amounts of other nutrients – fiber, manganese, folate, magnesium, copper, calcium, antioxidants and vitamins K, A, B2, B6, E and C. WOW! That’s a ton of nutrients for such a yummy tasting baby puree.
Of course we could just make a puree out of straight spinach, but I am pretty sure your baby will frown at such an intense puree. And we don’t want any sad babies, only happy babies here.
To turn this spinach into a crave-worthy puree, we are first going to simmer a bunch of healthy apples with a mixture of cinnamon, ginger and cloves. This combination of spices takes this puree from boring to amazing in seconds.
Once the apples are soft, we are going to add in 2 huge cups of spinach to the simmering apples so we can let the spinach gets nice and soft. This only takes a minute or two. Then into a blender the entire mixture goes and in less then 20 minutes you have a tasty baby puree that is packed with nutrients that your baby needs.
But this puree isn’t just for babies, heck no! This puree is also a great puree for older toddlers and kids because let’s face it, spinach will always be a hard sell for little ones of any age. My girls loved this puree served as a side for their lunches but they really loved it when I spooned it into reusable pouches for a quick snack on-the-run. If your kiddo is adversed to green colored food (most of them are) then the pouches are a great way to hide the color of the puree.
Any way you serve this puree, it is sure to be a hit with kiddos of all ages!
MORE BABY FOOD RECIPES
- 18 Stage 2 Baby Food Purees (that your baby actually eat!)
- 12 Budget-Friendly Baby Food Recipes
- 15 Dinner Puree Ideas for Baby
- 9 5-Minute Baby Food Purees
- Spinach + Apple Baby Food Puree
- Sweet Potato Baby Puree – 3 Delicious Ways
Spinach + Apple Baby Food Puree
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, add the apples, water, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes or until apples are tender when pricked with a fork, stirring occasionally.
- Add the spinach on top of the apples and cook for 2 more minutes. Let cool slightly.
- Add all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor and puree for 1-2 minutes or until completely smooth. Serve and enjoy.
Notes
I tried this recipe tonight – baby loved it and so did I! Delicious! I’ve made several of your recipes. I actually started out with baby led weaning, and vowed I won’t do purees with this baby but your blog made me miss purees. The combinations you have are so interesting, I wanted baby to experience them. Thank you!
I am so glad you both likes this recipe! There is no right or wrong way to feed baby healthy foods, so maybe this baby can do a combination of both. Either way, I am glad you find my recipes combinations yummy.
xo, Michele
I tried this recipe tonight – baby loved it and so did I! Delicious! I’ve made several of your recipes. I actually started out with baby led weaning, and vowed I won’t do purees with this baby but your blog made me miss purees. The combinations you have are so interesting, I wanted baby to experience them. Thank you!
I am so glad you both likes this recipe! There is no right or wrong way to feed baby healthy foods, so maybe this baby can do a combination of both. Either way, I am glad you find my recipes combinations yummy.
xo, Michele
Could you substitute frozen spinach? All of the E. coli breakouts with fresh lettuce has me a little worried.
I haven’t tried it but I think it would work. I would just put it in frozen and then decrease the amount of water you add in by 1/4 cup. Let me know how it turns out.
Could you substitute frozen spinach? All of the E. coli breakouts with fresh lettuce has me a little worried.
I haven’t tried it but I think it would work. I would just put it in frozen and then decrease the amount of water you add in by 1/4 cup. Let me know how it turns out.
May I ask why you cook the apples?? Where I live we make purées with fresh fruits as they are! We don’t cook them.. however I found out that it is very common to steam them.. don’t they loose their vitamins? What if I steam the spinach and put it with my fresh apple? Won’t be the same?
When you cook the apples, you release some of their natural sugars causing them to become sweeter. I haven’t tried not cooking the apples beforehand, but you can give it shot. I would worry that it might be too tart for baby. But if you try it, let us know how it works.
Hi Michele,
Absolutely love your website. I refer to it so often for recipes or starting anything new for my baby. I am first time mom and the website is my go to for most of my baby’s food ideas.
Shraddha, from India
my kid just loved it, finish within 5 mins.
Love this!
Not only do I want to say thank you for the recipe but thanks for showing me a new way to make apples for my baby! I use a baby bullet steamer and it takes FOREVER to make a bag of apples. This is way faster! My baby will eat every bite of this recipe with no hesitation. Luckily I had cinnamon and ginger left over from a pie I made for Thanksgiving. I didn’t have cloves but baby still loved it. Thanks for sharing!
So glad baby ate every bite! And yay for a fast and easy recipe!
Tried this today and it was a success. Baby loved it so much she asked for more. It was really easy and quick to make as well.
Love this! So yummy and so healthy!
I made this tonight and my baby, who has not really eaten any other of my purées absolutely loved it!! Thank you so much for this recipe!!
Love hear this!! Another big hit for babies is the 5-Minute Banana, Blueberry + Avocado Baby Food Puree.
My Kid liked it so much ..Thank Youuu
So glad!
Baby threw up all over his bed from the spinach. Apparently spinach before 12 months is questionable.
So sorry that baby threw up.. that is definitely not fun. Spinach is completely fine for babies under a year but if it was babies’ first time having spinach, you can try introducing it slowly with a smaller serving or less spinach in this recipe.
Hi there! Love all your recipes. I just made this with frozen spinach and it came out a bit stringy…what can I do to rectify it? It looks nothing like the picture you posted. Thanks so much.
Would love to help you with this. Did you cook the frozen spinach with the apples? If you want you can send me a picture at [email protected] so I can see what you mean by stringy. Did you blend it for a full 2 minutes?
Thanks for the quick reply. So I did cook it thoroughly and then blended it for quite a while but it still looks like the pieces of spinach are more of a chopped consistency rather than a purée. It tastes delicious so I’m going to attempt to give it to her (she’s almost 7 months old). If anything, I’ll blend it some more. Your recipe combinations are great. Thanks so much!