Baby-Friendly Beef Curry

Iron deficiency continues to be an ongoing nutritional concern for many developed countries. Due to the increased iron needs women, babies and toddlers remain most at risk. Iron is one of my "core-foods" that I talk about in both The Nourished Baby and The Nourished Toddler so if you are a first time reader do check these out.

As many of you know I am an avid slow cooker fan so this is one to add to your recipe collection. It also contains so good immune boosting ingredients of fresh ginger and garlic as well as turmeric. A quick whiz in a baby food maker or with a stick blender and you have an iron-rich baby food meal too. As all the vegetables and meat is soft after a good long cook time you can also make this more lumpy for babies looking to increase their texture.

If you are needing to be out all day, just leave the pumpkin out. It has a faster cook time so only added in half-way through and you can just thicken up with coconut cream at the end.

Ingredients:

Method:

Heat a frypan on medium and add oil when hot. Add beef and quickly brown before placing in the slow cooker. If there are any left over juices in the pan keep aside rather than add in (do not want too much liquid).

Add a little more oil to the pan, bring to heat and then place in onions. Fry for a minute or two until translucent. Quickly add in the ginger, garlic and spices to form a curry paste. Place on top of meat in the slow cooker.

Add the potato to the fry pan and quickly dry-fry on heat to coat in any remaining spices before adding to the slow cooker. If short on time you can skip this step.

Pour drained tomatoes into the slow cooker and use a wooden spoon to combine together. Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for four hours.

After four hours, place in the pumpkin and coconut cream and stir to combine. Add bay leaves on top.

Cook for a further four hours. If at home give a quick stir once or twice. 15 minutes before serving place rice on (stove top or rice cooker) to serve.

To make baby food simply take out some soft pieces of vegetables and meat place into a baby food maker or bowl, add some liquid from the slow cooker and whiz to combine.

I like to leave some soft vegetables to explore as well. The bowl Ray has is the Kizingo nudge bowl to help this exploration (available here)

For further information on iron and baby and toddler feeding refer to my 'Nourished Book Series' - The Nourished Baby, The Nourished Toddler and my Baby & Toddler Cookbook.

You can also check out my Dr Julie's Kitchen slow cooker mixes which are all baby-friendly (no grains, gluten, sugar, additives or artificial colours) and can be easily given whizzed into a puree or soft pieces in a baby-led weaning way.

x Dr Julie