White beans with lemon and sweet potato
A delicious, yet simple, baby led weaning recipe that's high in iron.
Ingredients
- 1 can white kidney beans (500 mL)
- ½ juice of a lemon (or 1 tbsp. lemon juice)
- 1 sweet potato
Instructions
- Rinse the canned white beans under water (twice if it’s not a low-sodium version). Drain the water.
- Using a fork, mash the beans until a lumpy puree forms. A lumpy texture and skin are ok, as long as the whole bean shape doesn’t remain.
- Juice 1/2 a lemon and mix the juice into the white bean puree.
- Cut the remaining lemon in half (yielding 2 x quarter wedges).
- Cook the sweet potato and mash it. Stir the mashed sweet potato into the lemon white bean mixture, until well combined (go for a 1:1 ratio of beans to sweet potato). Roll mixture into 2 tbsp - sized balls.
Notes
How to serve to your baby:
Option 1
You can serve the white bean + lemon juice mash on a preloaded spoon. Hold the spoon in front of your baby for them to grab from you and feed themselves, if possible.
For a finger food option, serve the quartered lemon wedge for your baby to hold with one or two hands and experience the sour taste of lemons. Don’t shy away from this taste exposure - a lot of babies love this!
Option 2
Serve the sweet potato + bean balls to your baby as is for them to hold using palmar grasp.
Option 3
If your baby is older and has their pincer grasp (8-9 months+), they can use that to pick up slightly squashed beans (squish between your thumb and forefinger). Squeeze a little lemon juice on top before serving. Alternatively, you can preload them on a baby safe fork for your baby to self-feed.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!