Pumpkin Spinach soup

Pumpkin/Butternut squash is packed with so many vitamins that it becomes a must-have in any child's food plan. The sweetish taste, the bright colour and the smooth texture makes it ideal for baby food. When a child starts solid food at around 6 months, you could just puree the steamed squash and add a dash of cinnamon for flavor. As the child grows and needs more complex textures and tastes, you could do try different methods of preparing squash. One such method that I use is given below, where you could sneak in any other less appealing vegetable like french beans, lima beans, broccoli,etc. I sometimes add spinach which given separately is a definite no from my daughter.

Ingredients

1 cup                    - peeled and cubed pumpkin/butternut squash

1 med                   - onion chopped fine

1 cup                    - warm milk

1 cup                    - spinach leaves (the stem might be hard for the child) or any other veggie

1/2 tsp                  - fresh or dried oregano, basil (any other herb your child is partial to)

1 pinch                 - cinnamon

1/4 cup                 - fresh coriander

2 - 3 strands         - saffron

1 tsp                     - olive oil (or sunflower oil)

                               salt as reqd

Method

1.   First add the saffron strands to the cup of warm milk and keep it aside(this is so that it gets infused). Then in a hot soup pot/pan add the olive oil and the chopped onion

2.  Once the onion turns pink, add the spinach leaves and stir until they wilt

3.  Add the cubed squash pieces and add some water

4.  Cover the pan and cook till the squash pieces are soft

5.  Add the herbs, cinnamon and the coriander and stir

6.  Add 1/2 cup of the saffron infused warm milk and cook covered for 2 more minutes before switching off the stove.

7.  Cool 1/2 of this mixture and then grind it along with the rest of the milk to get reqd soup consistency

8.   Now add the rest of the mixture to the soup and add salt as required

9.   Heat it on the stove for 1 or 2 min taking care that the milk  doesn't curdle

10. Serve warm

Instead of making this chunky soup you could grind the entire mixture to get a smooth soup. You could also add a dash of pepper if required and Voila! you have got a warm and nutritively rich soup that your child will love!

Eggless low fat Sweet Potato cake recipe

This was a recipe I had tried a while back when my daughter refused to eat anything and I started taking desperate measures in my attempt to put something in her stomach. I had used a microwave oven then and so this recipe is based on that. This is a recipe that I had improvised for sweet potatoes after reading the 'yum' blog (http://theyumblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/chocolate-apple-brownies-low-fat-and-vegan/).

Ingredients

2 cups             - Wholewheat / atta
1/2 cup           - Castor sugar (Powdered sugar)
1 cup              - Curd
1 cup              - Milk (more could be added if reqd)
1/2 cup           - Sunflower oil
1/2 cup           - cooked apple puree* (for sweetness)
1/2 cup           - walnut/almonds coarsely ground
1 cup              - chopped cooked sweet potato (u could probably replace with pumpkin too)
1 tsp               - vanilla essence
1/2 tsp            - cinnamon or nutmeg powder
2 tsp               - baking powder
1/2 tsp            - baking soda (optional)
1 tbsp             - flaxseed powder **(mixed with 2 tbsp water)
1/2 tsp            - salt

Method

1. Peel, Cube and steam sweet potato till it is just cooked & still firm to touch.
2. In a big bowl, add all dry ingredients & mix them together in one direction
3. In another bowl, mix all wet ingredients and then add to the dry ingredients bowl. Mix in one direction so that there are no lumps
4. The mixture should be liquid enough to flow when poured into a greased microwave dish. Add more milk if its too solid.
5. Keep the dish in microwave for 10 min. (Mine is an old model microwave oven and probably the wattage is lesser). For safety sake, set the timer to 5 min and check with a toothpick or knife if the cake's done. If not keep it for another 2 min and check & so on.

* Apple puree can be replaced with dates/raisin syrup where you need to soak dates/raisins in hot water for 5-10 min and then grind it for getting a syrup. This makes the cake moist and sweet without having to add extra sugar
**Flaxseed powder is an egg substitute required for binding the cake together. I have used the eqivalent of 1 egg here. You could add more as per your requirement

The resultant cake is moist and a bit dense because of using apple puree for sweetening, but is very delicious and has a better nutritive value. This could be given any time of day as a snack and will be lapped up by kids and adults alike.