Low Sodium Sauce Recipes that Make BLW Foods Safer for Baby to Swallow
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Low Sodium Sauce Recipes that Make BLW Foods Safer for Baby to Swallow
Dry foods are choking hazards for early eaters. But adding sauces, dippers and toppers to your baby’s foods can make them safer to swallow. Here are some easy ideas & recipes for doing just that!
What’s the Deal with Dry Foods?
Why can’t babies have dry foods? Well, for one, dry foods are a choking hazard.
By adding moisture we make it easier for baby to maneuver food around the mouth and also swallow foods safely.
The foods that tend to be the most dry are protein foods like meat, fish and poultry along with starchy foods like pancakes or bread products.
Of course we can modify MOST foods to make them safe for baby-led weaning, but adding dippers, sauces & toppers is a great way to do that!
If you want to learn more about giving your baby a safe start to solid foods check out my FREE online workshop called, “BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS: How to get your baby to try 100 foods before turning 1 without you having to spoon-feed purees or buy pouches!”
You can sign up for this week’s workshop times by clicking here...and everyone on this free workshop gets a copy of my 100 FIRST FOODS LIST...so you’ll never wonder what to feed your baby next!
Why Can’t I Just Buy Sauce for my BLW Foods?
So you might be wondering, “Well why then can’t I just buy sauce to put on my baby’s BLW foods?”
Well the deal with commercial sauces that you buy at the store is that they tend to be too high in sodium.
We don’t want your baby developing an affinity for salty foods, and most sauces have loads of salt for preservative but also flavoring purposes.
If you want to learn more about why babies shouldn’t have sodium and what you can do to keep salt low, check out my podcast episode, “Salt: 3 Easy Ways To Minimize Sodium For Your Baby”.
5 Free BLW Sauce Recipes
Making sauces at home that are low in salt and appropriate to put on your baby’s foods is not hard.
But if you’re not inclined to cooking your own sauces, you might not know where to start.
I’ve created a free download with 5 BLW Sauce Recipes that you can access here.
The 5 sauces in this download are ideal for use across a variety of foods. The sauce recipes in the download are:
Japanese Sesame Sauce (Goma Dare) - this one is modified from our dietitian Katelynn’s mom’s recipe and goes great on fish, noodles or with soups
Low Sodium Marinara Sauce - I know you’re using pasta to introduce wheat to your baby, but here’s a sauce to spice things up that doesn’t have added sugar or sodium (can’t find that in a store!)
Chimichurri - beef is perfectly safe to serve to babies (no strips of steak though!). Once you have a soft, shreddable strip of beef for your baby, top it off with this no salt chimichurri (makes a great pasta sauce too!)
Aioli Sauce - great all around dipper to moisten up your baby’s protein & bread foods. Has additional info in this description about introducing allergenic foods too
Peanut Satay Sauce - commercial satay sauce is way too high in salt and sugar, but this is a safe way to introduce your baby to the allergenic food peanut while moistening up foods like chicken or noodles
You can get all of these low sodium baby-led weaning sauces to help reduce choking risk in your baby by clicking here and grabbing this free download.
Two Additional Starter Sauces
If you need some additional sauce inspiration, my friend Aileen Cox Blundell from @babyledfeeding is a BLW sauce superstar!
Aileen is the author of 2 cookbooks: The Baby-Led Feeding Cookbook and The Baby-Friendly Family Cookbook...both of which are LOADED with sauce recipes.
I interviewed Aileen from @babyledfeeding on an episode of my podcast called Sauces, “Dippers & Toppers for Making BLW Foods Safe with @babyledfeeding Aileen Cox Blundell” and you can listen to that here.
In that podcast episode, Aileen graciously shared 2 of her amazing sauce recipes & I’ll post those below:
Easy-Peas Basil & Spinach Pesto Recipe
This recipe is as Aileen puts it “a winner with kids and loaded with goodness.” Aileen features this recipe in her Baby-Friendly Family Cookbook and uses it on pasta, steak and chicken...but you could lather it really on any dry bread product or protein for BLW.
Ingredients:
85 mL (1/3 cup) extra virgin olive oil
2 large handfuls spinach
1 large handful basil leaves
Juice ½ lemon
½ clove garlic, crushed
60 g. (½ cup) goat’s cheese, grated
4 tbsp. pumpkin seeds
Directions:
1. Place all of the ingredients in a blender, starting with the oil. This helps to break everything quicker.
2. Blend until smooth and silky.
3. Pour into a jar with a lid and refrigerate until you are ready to use. Keeps in the fridge for about 5 days.
The Best Ever Curry-in-a-Hurry Sauce
Babies don’t have to eat bland food! This recipe is also from Aileen’s Baby-Friendly Family Cookbook and is a great way to push your baby’s palate with some new flavor experiences.
Ingredients:
60mL (¼ cup) rapeseed oil
1 large white onion, roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large thumb-sized piece root ginger, thinly sliced
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
6 cardamom pods, seeds only
200g (7oz) tinned chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp. tomato puree
400mL (14oz) tinned coconut milk
4 tbsp. tahini
1 mango, peeled and diced
Directions:
1. Heat the rapeseed oil over a medium heat, then gently fry the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further minute or two until fragrant but not browning.
2. Add all of the spices, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, coconut milk, and tahini, stir well and bring to a simmer.
3. Pour into a blender with the mango and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour into sterilized jars and store in the fridge for up to five days or freeze!
