I remember in the early days of weaning Raffy (once he was on proper “meals”) I really struggled with ideas for toppings and sauces other than tomato-based ones for his dinners. Being the biggest Italian food fan, I obviously love a tomato sauce, but variety is and was always in the forefront of my mind when it comes to feeding Raffy.
Therefore I used to often try and create other toppings for rice/pasta/potatoes/couscous etc that didn’t always have to include tomatoes! Actually some of my favourite recipes have come out of these ideas. So I thought I’d share them with my audience today, who might be looking for something similar.
I often get asked by parents about non-tomato options. Sometimes because parents want variety too, but sometimes because baby’s skin might react to tomato in the early days. Or baby may just show a bit of a dislike for them initially. Raffy still isn’t that keen on raw tomato, but he’ll normally eat up a tomato sauce fairly easily.
However, I decided to put some of my non-tomato ideas down in a post, with links to recipes to help anyone who is looking for a bit more variety themselves. I hope you find it helpful!
10 Baby Sauce Recipes Without Tomato
(also great for toddlers and children!)
- Pesto –
Pesto is a great one to introduce to little ones, once nuts have been introduced and accepted. Shop bought ones can be packed with salt, so I tend to try and make my own. Pesto is a super simple recipe, needing only around 3-4 ingredients, it’s also great paired with pasta, on toast, as a drizzle on salads and sides. It’s also a good way to use up leftover greens!
- Creamy mushroom and chickpea stroganoff –
Obviously this can be served with rice. But it can also be adapted and made into a creamy mushroom sauce for a potato, pasta and I also often offer it to Raffy with couscous too. You can also easily adapt the ingredients if you aren’t a fan of chickpeas or mushrooms!
Check out the stroganoff recipe here
- Cheesy basil yogurt sauce –
This one was created by my friend Joe Wicks for his Wean in 15 page. It’s a really really simple, easy and delicious one. I make it all the time.
Check out the recipe on Joe’s Instagram here
- Avocado and cream cheese recipe –
This is one I made up in the early days of feeding Raf as I needed something quick and that I knew he would gobble up. It’s super easy to make and you can find the recipe here on my Instagram page under the highlights section!
Go to my Instagram page to find the recipe
- Hummus –
The other day we were looking for a sauce to serve with veggies and rice for raffy’s dinner. We ended up whacking together my homemade hummus recipe (takes minutes) and mixing this with rice and serving with some veggies. It might not work with pasta (anyone?), but it definitely worked with some quinoa and rice mix. I’m pretty sure it’d also work with couscous too!
Check out my hummus recipe here
- Lentil & butter nut squash purée
This is a recipe I created for Thermapen and I really loved putting it together. It provides a vegan source of iron and is a fab way to get lentils into little one’s diets too.
- Mixed leftover veggies –
Doesn’t look great but a few times I’ve simply taken a load of vegetables that need using up, roasted them or steamed them until super soft. Added a few herbs, blended and served it up on top of pasta. This is such an easy way to get lots of veggies in and you can experiment a lot with the flavours you add to work out what your little one likes too. I don’t have a recipe for this, as it’s literally as simple as those two/three steps above, but let me know if you’d like me to experiment more with flavours for this one.
- Chickpeas & tomatoes (or carrots!!) –
OK, this is a cheat one. But back in the early days of feeding Raffy I was always trying to find ways to include iron rich foods such as pulses, lentils and beans into his diet. This one is defo a winner and although my go to was roasted tomatoes mixed with some steamed chickpeas and blended (simple as that), you could definitely substitute the tomatoes for butternut squash, sweet potato, carrot or anything else you fancy.
- Salmon yogurt sauce
This dish is something I offered Raffy really early on, in order to get him into fish from a young age. It’s simply a matter of taking ½ a tin of salmon or ½ a fillet of baked salmon. Mash it with a fork and adding a couple of large tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt, some finely chopped spinach!
- *New Recipe* – Tofu and coconut sauce
Serves 2 toddler sized portions
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon of coconut oil
- 60g of leek (around 1/3rd), roughly chopped
- 100g calcium set tofu
- 3 tablespoons coconut cream
- 2 tablespoons of 100% smooth peanut butter
- A drizzle of sweet chilli sauce for adults/older kids
Method:
- Heat the oil in the pan and once melted, add the leeks
- Cook for around 2 minutes or until they start to brown
- Add the tofu and cook until it starts to brown too (around 5-6 minutes)
- Whilst it’s cooking, mix the coconut cream and peanut butter in a sperate bowl
- Once the tofu is slightly brown, turn down the heat, and add the coconut and nut butter mix. Stir well and allow to heat for a few minutes.
- Remove from the pan and it’s ready to serve. It’s a good option with rice and/or quinoa
I really hope you enjoy them. Some of these recipes are really bish bash bosh ones, so they aren’t perfected options. I’d love any feedback on them so that I can re-test and improve as well, so please shout if you have any ideas. I’m certainly no chef!!
