Inspiration for meals during weaning is one of the most common requests we get from parents. Simple sauces and toppings are often really easy ways to offer variety, nutrition and flavour, but thinking of ideas can be a challenge! Tomato based sauces are great, but we know that offering as much variety as possible early on can help babies to become familiar with and accept a wider variety of flavours.
The natural acidity in tomatoes can sometimes cause a harmless but uncomfortable red contact rash on a baby’s sensitive skin, particularly around the mouth, so some parents are looking for alternatives to tomato sauce for that reason. And some babies may struggle with the tartness of tomatoes in the early days of weaning.
So to help inspire you with some easy alternatives to a tomato based sauce, here are some of our favourite nutritious, tomato-free ideas and easy weaning recipes that the whole family can enjoy.
10 Baby Sauce Recipes Without Tomato
Note – these recipes are also great for older children and adults, too!
Pesto sauce
Pesto is a great one to introduce to little ones, once nuts have been introduced and accepted. Shop bought ones can be high in salt, and making your own can be really easy. 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!
Pesto can a really nutritious food for little ones – this ultimate pesto recipe is a great option for those days when you need some quick, nutritious and delicious!
Creamy mushroom and chickpea stroganoff sauce
This is a really versatile sauce – you can serve it with rice, or adapt it to make a creamy mushroom sauce for a potato, pasta or couscous. 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 is a really simple recipe made back in the day for Wean in 15 by Joe Wicks. It’s incredibly simple and really popular with little ones!
Check out the recipe on Joe’s Instagram here
Avocado and cream cheese sauce
A simple, tasty and nutritious sauce that you can make in minutes! Avocados are a great source of healthy fats which are really important in babies’ diets. Simply mash an avocado with a tablespoon of cream cheese for a quick and easy sauce.
Hummus
This might seem like an odd choice to serve as a ‘sauce’ but it can actually work surprisingly well. It tends to work better with quinoa, rice or couscous but it’s a simple option to mix in for babies. This simple hummus recipe can be really versatile for mixing in with grains, spreading on toast or simply offering alongside veggie sticks.
Lentil & butter nut squash purée
This is a really old recipe but such a simple option for weaning babies. It provides a vegan source of iron and it’s a nice way to include lentils in your little one’s meal. It can be a fab option for offering to your baby after their first tastes and then using in many different ways if you’ve got leftovers. Get the recipe for this lentil and butternut squash puree, here.
Mixed leftover veggies
This isn’t a ‘recipe’ as such, but it’s a really easy way to use up leftover vegetables. You can either use veggies you’ve already roasted/steamed or cook them until they’re super soft and then blend them together with some herbs to mix in with pasta. You could add some cheese (mascarpone or ricotta could work well). It doesn’t always look particularly appetising but it’s a nice way to introduce a variety of flavours, use up veggies and offer plenty of nutrition to your little one.
Chickpeas & tomatoes (or carrots!!)
This is a bit of a cheat “tomato alternative” option, as it does still include tomatoes, but it’s such a simple combination and works really well.
You could also swap the tomatoes for carrots, butternut squash or sweet potato if you want a completely tomato-free version. This is similar to my sweet potato, butter bean and cumin mash recipe, and you could use butter beans instead of chickpeas here too for a slightly softer, creamier texture.e.
Salmon yogurt sauce
Tinned fish is a really great store cupboard staple for weaning babies. It can be used in so many ways, and is a simple way to offer fish from a young age.
For this sauce, simple mash ½ a tin of salmon (or ½ a fillet of baked salmon) together with a couple of large tablespoons of greek yoghurt. Add some chopped spinach and you’ve got a simple, nutritious sauce to mix with pasta, rice, couscous or potatoes.
Peanut and coconut sauce
A mild peanut and coconut sauce is a really lovely way to add flavour variety for little ones, and it can be adapted depending on what you have at home.
For a simple sauce, use:
1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp smooth no-added sugar and salt peanut butter, or another nut/seed butter
2 handfuls chopped frozen vegetables, such as peas, sweetcorn, carrots or mixed veg
Warm the vegetables in a saucepan for a few minutes until they begin to soften, then pour in the coconut milk and stir through the peanut butter until the sauce is smooth.
To turn it into more of a meal, add a protein such as chickpeas, calcium-set tofu, cooked chicken or prawns, and serve with rice or noodles.
This is based on my 15-minute Toddler-Friendly Peanut Coconut Curry, which makes around 3-4 toddler portions and is a great one-pan option for busy days.
Hopefully these recipes help for inspiration and show that you really don’t need fancy recipes or ingredients to feed your baby a variety of flavours and foods. It’s simply about taking foods that you have at home and experimenting.
If you’re looking for more simple recipes for your weaning baby, check out my book How To Wean Your Baby.
