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Broccoli baby food is packed with nutritional benefits to help your baby thrive. This recipe for broccoli puree is easy to prepare and store, quickly making it a kitchen staple that your little one will love. 

Enough with the stereotypes that kids don’t like to eat their broccoli! Broccoli is an excellent first food to serve when introducing solids to your baby. It’s packed with nutrients and it tastes great.

One of the many joys of parenting is when our babies are finally old enough to enjoy solid foods. Of course we want to give them the most nutritious foods, and we also want to maintain our sanity by offering great food that doesn’t take forever to prepare.

This recipe is exactly what you need. Broccoli is an absolute nutritional powerhouse, and this broccoli puree comes together in very little time. Between the amazing health benefits and the ease of cooking, you’ll feel great about feeding your baby broccoli. Plus, in this post we’ll show you how to pick out high quality broccoli from the store as well as offer up some creative shortcuts and storage hacks for making the best broccoli baby food.

What you will need

This broccoli puree is made from a very simple recipe! Here’s what you’ll need:

• Saucepan: Any saucepan will work for this recipe as long as it’s large enough to hold the amount of broccoli you’re boiling with enough water to cover the broccoli.
• Kitchen knife: A good knife will help you to easily cut up the broccoli into florets.
• Blender or food processor: A good blender or food processor is extremely helpful when making homemade baby food recipes. Either blending appliance will work just fine to make sure you end up with a smooth puree
• Baby food jars: Reusable glass jars are a great idea for serving baby food. You can portion out your broccoli right after blending and store them in your fridge for short term meals.

For ingredients, you’ll need:

• Broccoli: Broccoli is the main ingredient of this simple recipe. We used fresh broccoli and cut the stems off to only prepare the florets. For added convenience, you can also buy pre-cut florets from the grocery store to save on time.
• Milk: We’re using milk to create a broccoli puree with a creamy consistency. Milk also adds extra vitamins and healthy fats into the puree. Feel free to use anything from breastmilk to whole milk, or your own preferred liquid, like a little bit of olive oil or a splash of fresh lemon juice to add flavor. You can even use the same water that you boiled your broccoli in, and get some of those nutrients that cooked out right back into your puree.

Benefits of Broccoli 

Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable in the same family as cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. It’s a true superfood, packed to the brim with health benefits to help build a strong body. Some of its top vitamins and minerals include:

• Vitamin C: plays an important part in the body’s ability to fight off diseases as well as its healing process.
• Potassium: an essential mineral beneficial for blood pressure control and heart disease prevention.
• Iron: the body uses iron to make hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body.

How to make broccoli baby food

1. Cut fresh broccoli heads into 2-inch florets

Chop the florets away from the stalks and cut up small florets of about 2-inches in size. This will make the cooking process easier, allowing the veggies to boil evenly once you add them to heat. If you’ve never cut a whole head of fresh broccoli before, it’s easier than it may seem.

Place the head upside down, with the stalk facing you. Hold onto the stalk and cut in a downward motion to remove the florets. When finished, you should have a stalk, which you may set aside, and a few sets of larger bundles of florets.

Cut the bundles apart at their stem, leaving individual florets. These smaller florets are easier to trim down to your preferred size for cooking.

2. Boil broccoli florets until tender

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, boil broccoli until tender (7-12 minutes). The broccoli will be ready to remove from heat when they’ve softened, but haven’t yet come mushy. They will be bright green in color. Keep in mind boiling isn’t the only way to cook broccoli. You might also consider steamed broccoli if you have a steamer basket handy.

3. Blend broccoli with milk until smooth

Move the cooked broccoli from the stovetop to the blender or food processor. Add milk and blend until smooth. If the puree seems too gritty after 2-3 minutes of blending, try adding additional milk. Start with one tablespoon of milk and keep adding gradually while you blend until the desired consistency is reached.

4. Transfer for serving and storage

You can now move the broccoli puree to bowls for feeding and storage. Make sure the broccoli has cooled to a safe to touch temperature before feeding it to your baby.

How to store broccoli puree

Broccoli stores very well. You can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days and freeze it for much longer, about 6 months.

The best way to freeze broccoli puree is to fill an ice cube tray with the baby food, cover it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. Once the prepared puree is frozen, pop out the frozen cubes and add them to an airtight freezer bag for longer term storage. Freezing leftovers into cubes also allows you to easily keep track of portion sizes so when meal time comes, you can pop out the baby food cubes at your convenience. The size of a single, standard ice cube is generally about one ounce or two tablespoons.

You do not need to reheat the broccoli puree once it’s time to feed your baby again. Just thaw it in the refrigerator overnight

When can my baby eat broccoli?

Babies are ready to eat cooked broccoli as soon as they’re ready to eat solid foods. You will want to check in with your baby’s pediatrician to make sure your little one is developmentally ready for solid foods.

After developing their pincer grasp, older babies might enjoy the finger food option of cut up, cooked broccoli florets, but you can start feeding your baby broccoli puree once you start solids.

Some parents choose to avoid broccoli until their babies are slightly older because this fiber rich vegetable can be a little harsh on little ones’ digestive systems. Gas and bloating have been reported as possible outcomes. This might be something to chat with your pediatrician about, especially if your baby has a history of digestive sensitivities.

We recommend introducing broccoli baby food at around 6 months. Check out our food introduction guide for more information about which foods are appropriate for which ages, from sweet potato puree to green beans, and more!

How to shop for the best broccoli

The best quality broccoli will have tight, deep green florets and firm, thin stalks. The stalks are perfectly edible and actually contain more fiber than the florets, so feel free to chop up and include them in your puree.

Can I use frozen broccoli?

Yes. Frozen broccoli is just as nutrient rich as (and sometimes more convenient than) its fresh counterpart. To use frozen broccoli, follow the same cooking method as mentioned earlier, simply cook them for longer so they’re just as tender before you add them to your blender.

Alternatively, you can just buy a frozen steamer bag of broccoli and microwave it before transferring the broccoli to the blender. This method for steaming broccoli has even less prep time and you won’t have to worry about boiling water.

Try another puree recipe

Purees are easy to make and great for your baby’s diet! We have lots of options to add variety to your mealtime routine. Check out these recipes:

• Chicken Baby Food
• Pear Puree
• Sweet Potato Puree

Tips for making the best broccoli puree

For the best taste, be careful not to overcook your broccoli in the saucepan. Just because the end product is mashed up, doesn’t mean your broccoli should be extra mushy before it even gets to the blender. Remove the broccoli from heat once it can be easily pierced with a fork. You can also pour cold water over the cooked broccoli, or let it sit in an ice water bath to quickly stop the carryover cooking.

Make sure to get those florets chopped up small before blending your broccoli. This will help make the puree process smooth.

If you do want to puree the broccoli stalks, be sure to peel them and cut them up very thin before boiling them. This helps make sure they cook all the way through and don’t leave any especially rough pieces in your food.

Try incorporating other veggies! You may want to mix in white potato, cauliflower, or even spinach to make a flavorful baby puree that packs an even bigger nutritional punch. Just remember not to introduce multiple new foods at once. Doing so makes it much tougher to monitor for any adverse reactions your baby may have to a new food.