Sweet Potato Baby Led Weaning: Ways To Serve

If you’re planning to do baby led weaning with sweet potatoes, they make the perfect first solid baby food beginning with six months of age. The sweet potatoes can be cooked first and then mashed / pureed, or cut into large enough pieces so your baby could grasp them with his little hands. You can make a large variety of sweet potato baby food combinations and finger foods with different textures adjusted by age.

Sweet Potato For Baby Led Weaning

If making sweet potatoes for babies know that you can use any sweet potato such as red sweet potato, white sweet potato, purple sweet potato, Japanese sweet potato etc.

Just like baby led weaning with carrots or butternut squash, the sweet potato has a nice soft texture (when cooked) and is nutritionally dense with a good variety of minerals and vitamins – actually one of the best sources of vitamin A. Plus it’s rich in resistant starch and dietary fiber which helps in digestion.

How To Cook Sweet Potato For Baby Led Weaning

Sweet potatoes can be cooked in a variety of ways from steaming to baking or grilling. You just need to peel off its skin (or you can peel the skin after the sweet potato has been cooked), cut to age appropriate sizes and cook.

If you prefer you can cook first, and then cut (or mash).

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How To Cut Sweet Potato For Baby Led Weaning

You have two options:

• Peel and cut first, then cook OR
• Cook first (cut in half) then cut into smaller pieces and serve to your baby.

For a fun crinkle-cut shape use a crinkle knife. It’s quick to cut and easy for babies to hold with their little hands because it doesn’t slide off.

You can also cut the sweet potatoes into other different shapes (cubes, strips, small sized half moon shapes, mashed with a fork, pureed or spiralized).

Steaming Sweet Potato For BLW

Steaming is one of the best ways to prepare sweet potato for baby led weaning. This method of cooking preserves the most of it vitamins as there is less contact with water and has a short exposure to heat.

To steam you need to:

1. Peel the sweet potato. Slice it into desired size pieces.
2. Bring 1 inch of water to boil in a saucepan fitted with a steamer basket and cover with a lid.
3. Steam on medium-low heat for approximately 15-20 minutes (it depends on the size) or until they are soft when pierced with a fork. Then you can cut into smaller pieces specific for your baby’s age and serve.

Baking / Roasting Sweet Potatoes For Babies

If you want to bake sweet potatoes for your baby, you have two options: cut then bake, or bake first (cut in half) and then once soft cut into smaller pieces.

If you intend to serve with a spoon, mashed or make a sweet potato puree, then you can bake (or steam) sweet potato whole.

1. Chop the sweet potatoes into desired size. I like to cut it in half before roasting. And then slice into smaller pieces after baking.
2. Brush with oil (healthier oil to use is olive oil, avocado oil or grape seed oil).
3. Spread on a parchment paper lined sheet pan (try not to use foil, aluminum when exposed to high heat can leach into food).
4. Roast until soft, approximately 30-40 minutes. Then you can cut into desired shapes.

Related: Sweet Potato Puree + Combinations | Babies (6 months+)

Also bear in mind that if you prepare the sweet potato as baby finger food, it should be cooked until tender but still firm enough to keep its integrity.

Boiling Sweet Potatoes For Baby

Boiling sweet potatoes usually is the least preferred method if you need just plain soft sweet potato pieces. The most nutrients will leach into the boiling water that you will likely discard. This method is best when you make soups and purees as you would keep the water with all the leached nutrients.

Sweet Potato Finger Food Recipes For Baby

• steamed (roasted) crinkle-cut sweet potato sticks or roasted sweet potato cubes;
• Sweet potato pancakes for baby 6 months +
• sweet potato muffins (just like these baby banana muffins, replace mashed banana with mashed sweet potato);
• sweet potato fritters;
• waffles with grated sweet potato or pureed.

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