Beets: the pros and cons of a red vegetable
It is impossible to imagine classic borscht, vinaigrette, not to mention all sorts of salads - with mayonnaise and garlic, sour cream and cucumbers, marinated with cabbage. Beets are not only an indispensable product on the menu, they are an excellent doctor: beet juice with honey is a wonderful natural remedy for coughs and runny noses. But when and how best to introduce it into the diet of babies?
Basic rules when introducing vegetables
When asked whether children can have beets, nutritionists recommend delaying their introduction. Especially if your baby has allergies, do not rush to give it as part of complementary foods, it is better to be late for a couple of months, but be sure that the child is not afraid of diathesis. The same applies to children who have problems with the gastrointestinal tract: sometimes gastritis can result from giving fresh beetroot, even if it is heavily diluted with water.
The simplest beet salad is a boiled or baked vegetable, which is then chopped in a blender, sour cream and cream are added and given to the child. Usually beets are not fed separately, but mixed with carrots and cucumbers. A very good option for serving beets is a beetroot soup.
As for how to give beet juice to a child, doctors and nutritionists recommend administering it with caution, starting with a few drops diluted in equal proportions with boiled water. It is very good for the prevention of anemia, and as a mild laxative if a child experiences constipation, and for strengthening blood vessels, and will be good mixed with carrot juice (). Beets help in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, so very often, on a subconscious level, a child can eat ordinary boiled beets with appetite, sprinkling them with salt and dipping them in sour cream.
Many mothers wonder: at what age are beets allowed for children? Beets can be given starting from 8-9 months, after adaptation to other vegetables. But it’s better to wait up to a year: at this age, if a child has been receiving complementary foods for six months, his digestive system is relatively well developed.
Of course, we must not forget that all the components of dishes, including beets, will be perfectly absorbed if the baby is breastfed: breast milk contains hydrolytic enzymes that allow you to actively break down and digest proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. As the period of feeding increases, the beneficial qualities of breast milk increase more and more, therefore, after feeding the baby borscht or, give him the breast as a “snack”. By the way, it is infants who eat everything from the common table, without signs of any allergies, who are distinguished by excellent growth parameters and good health.
When choosing beets, try to choose medium-sized fruits with a bright color. It’s great if the vegetable was grown at home - this is how you protect your baby from nitrates and chemicals commonly used in crop production.
What to cook from beets?
You can make raw salads from beets. We grate the peeled vegetable, add carrots and cucumber (for example), pour in sour cream and soy sauce - and serve to the baby. This salad is best eaten by a child older than one year: beets are irritating to the intestines, so they can cause diarrhea. But it’s still better to prepare dishes from boiled or baked beets (): while maintaining the best qualities, they lose harmful and irritating substances.
The variety of dishes with beets is surprising. Stewed veal with beets and prunes, cake or sponge cake with the addition of raw finely grated beets, beetroot-chocolate pie. Ukrainian shpundra is very tasty - stewed pork (ribs or brisket) with fermented beets.
With beets, you can prepare something like a meat vinaigrette by adding boiled meat, nuts, and cheese. But the Chinese offer a salad recipe that includes thinly sliced and fried meat, raw grated carrots and beets, and fried onions. The mixture of products is poured with boiling vegetable oil, sprinkled with soy sauce and apple or rice vinegar. A child over 1.5-2 years old will eat it with pleasure, choosing what he likes best.
The fish is baked with beets in the oven (having been boiled beforehand), laid in layers and covered with sauce. You can also stew it with raw beets, grated or sliced, it will be no less tasty. In this case, it is better to simmer it for a long time over low heat, placing fish, onions, beets, carrots in turn and lightly watering them with vegetable oil.
Sweets... with beets
Beetroot and chocolate brownie is exactly what any little one will appreciate. They have an elegant red color, based on fermented baked milk. A domestic version of cheesecake, but with beetroot and curd filling, it will be good for tea. Beetroot-apple tart with cheddar cheese, muffins with a mixture of orange and beets, pears with beets, and cakes where grated raw beets are added as an ingredient - it’s surprising what modern craftswomen prepare from a red vegetable.
And some mothers even manage to make beet ice cream. To do this, squeeze out the beet juice, boil it, and separately prepare a mixture of milk, cream and the remaining beet pulp. The mixture is boiled and frozen in an ice cream maker, and served with beet chips.
Try to diversify dishes with beets, and when feeding your child with them, do not overdo it. Beetroot is administered to children in moderation: a baby up to one year old can be given no more than 50 g per day; for an older child, even a baby, limit the daily allowance to 100 g. It is quite enough to give the child two to three times a week dishes that include beets, because it can simply become boring.
Any vegetables that can be stored for a long time, like pumpkin or zucchini, are popular in our latitudes, since we certainly know that they are not imported and grew up here. Beets are no exception - dishes made from them are not only healthy and nutritious, but also diversify the diet of children and adults well. From our article you will learn how tasty and simple it is to prepare this root vegetable for both the little ones and older children.
Previously, pediatricians recommended introducing fresh beet juice into complementary foods from literally 6 months. Today it is unanimously recognized as an extremely aggressive product, which, despite all its usefulness, can be introduced into the diet after a year, and even then only as an additive to apple or carrot juice in a ratio of 1:10.
But besides beet juice, you can make many other interesting dishes, the main advantage of which is the ability to give them to children from 8 months. As you must have guessed, the main condition for facilitating the absorption of this product by a child is heat treatment. In any of all the dishes we prepare, beets must be boiled or fried.
As a rule, it is boiled in the peel - this allows you to preserve the maximum of useful substances, and the taste of the root vegetable becomes brighter and richer. It is from such beets, boiled in their jackets, that several salad options can be prepared for children from 8 months of age.
Preparing children's salad from beets with apples
Take 50 g of cooked and peeled vegetable, grate it on a fine grater, add a finely grated fresh apple to it, and season with a teaspoon of vegetable oil if desired.
Your baby will eat this salad with great pleasure, since the usual taste of apple is complemented by the interesting and sweet, but mild taste of beets.
From 11 months, children can be offered the same salad, but seasoned with sour cream. We choose fat content no more than 20%.
Beet salad with prunes for children
From the age of one and a half, a little gourmet can be pampered with the spicy, piquant taste of beet salad with prunes and walnuts.
For 150 - 200 g of cooked and peeled vegetables, we will need 40 g of prunes and nuts equally.
- Soak dried fruits for at least 30 - 40 minutes in boiled water until they become completely soft.
- Then we grind them together with the nuts in a blender, or, if the child’s number of teeth and his desire to “chew” allow it, we simply chop them finely.
- Grate the beets on a fine grater, mix everything and season with vegetable oil.
However, beets can be used to make not only cold appetizers, but also first courses and main courses.
How to make easy beet soup with cheese
This soup will be a good alternative to the usual chicken noodles or meatball soup for children over 2 years old.
Ingredients
- Fresh beets – 500 g
- Medium size potatoes – 1 pc.
- Onions – 1 pc.
- Apples – 2 pcs.
- Chicken or beef broth – 1 l.
- Hard cheese – 100 g
- Garlic (optional) – 1 clove
- Fine salt – 1 tbsp
Step-by-step preparation of soup for children
- Place the pan with the broth on the fire so that it has time to boil.
- Meanwhile, grate the peeled beets, cut the potatoes into cubes, as usual for soup. Fry the vegetables in a frying pan in vegetable oil for 3 - 4 minutes, and then, cover with a lid, simmer for another five minutes. Transfer them to a saucepan with boiling broth.
- While the vegetables are cooking, fry the chopped onion along with finely chopped apples for no more than 5 minutes. Transfer everything into the pan and cook for another 10 minutes. Salt and add spices to taste.
- A couple of minutes before the end of cooking, add grated cheese. It needs time to melt well. Ready!
This soup can be served with cream or sour cream and croutons. It will be appreciated not only by children, but also by adults.
The recipe for this dish can be varied and changed as desired. For example, if you are against frying and don’t like grated vegetables in first courses, you can cut the beets and immediately put them in the broth, but you will need more cooking time, since they are raw.
Potatoes can be added no earlier than after 30 - 40 minutes. And instead of cheese, you can add a chopped egg to this soup, if the baby is not allergic to it, at the rate of a quarter for each plate. You can decorate the soup with finely chopped herbs.
The main dishes on the children's menu would also be good with beets.
Unusual children's ravioli with beets
This second one can easily be prepared for children from 2.5 years old. And adults definitely won’t refuse it!
Ingredients
- Beetroot – 1 pc.
- Dry cottage cheese – 100 g.
- Flour – 400 – 500 g
- Chicken egg – 3 pcs.
- Hard cheese – 100 g
- Water as needed
- Salt - a pinch
- Spices (nutmeg) are an ingredient for adult eaters.
Step-by-step preparation of ravioli for children
Let's start with the filling first.
- Either boil the beets in their peels, or bake them in the oven until tender - the vegetable should become soft. We clean it, grate it on a fine grater and squeeze it through a sieve or cheesecloth - there should be no excess moisture left.
- Mix beets with cottage cheese, grated cheese and egg. Salt, add spices, mix well.
Next, knead the dough
- Beat the sifted flour into the eggs, mix and add water so that the consistency is dense, but not tight.
- Sprinkle the table with flour and roll out the dough into thin layers. There should be two of them.
- Mentally divide the sheet into squares of 3 - 3.5 cm and put 1 tbsp of filling on each. Brush the remaining open gaps with beaten egg (brush or cotton swab) for gluing.
- Cover everything with a second sheet of dough and press the egg-coated areas. We cut the resulting ravioli with a special rotating knife or a simple but serrated blade; the edge processed in this way will look more interesting.
- Boil salted water in a large saucepan and cook the ravioli in it for 10 minutes until they float to the surface. Place on a plate and serve with sauce or sour cream.
But don’t think that only vegetarian dishes can be cooked with beets. It goes great with meat!
Raspberry cutlets with beets for children
Any child 4-5 years old, having tried it, will love this dish, because these cutlets are good not only for their taste, but also for their unusual crimson color.
Ingredients
- Minced meat (pork and beef) - 200 g
- Beetroot - 100 g
- Potatoes - 1 pc.
- Chicken egg - 1 pc.
- Salt - a pinch
- White pepper - optional
- Vegetable oil for frying
Cooking unusual colored cutlets for children
- We clean the vegetables, grate them on a fine grater or chop them with a blender and mix them with minced meat, egg, salt and pepper.
- Form cutlets and fry them in oil on both sides for about three minutes until golden brown.
- Then, closing the lid, simmer over low heat for another 8-10 minutes.
All is ready!
Such cutlets are not only juicy and satisfying, but also healthy, because we added vegetables to the minced meat instead of the traditional bread crumb.
When preparing any beet dishes for children, we use our imagination, experiment, and the result will pleasantly surprise you and your loved ones!
How to get your child to eat not only delicious sweets, but also healthy vegetables? Prepare an original and interesting dish from them! Beets for children are a good option to diversify their diet and get a portion of essential vitamins.
Beet salad is good for children
Ingredients
Beet 1 piece(s)
- Number of servings: 1
- Cooking time: 15 minutes
Beet salad with apple
A salad prepared according to this recipe can be offered to babies starting from 11 months. By this age, the vast majority of children are already accustomed to the taste of an apple, and beets will add sweetness to the dish. The baby will be interested in trying something new.
Ingredients:
- beets – 1 pc.;
- apple – 1 pc.;
- vegetable oil or sour cream for dressing.
Small beets are boiled in their skins. This way it will retain more nutrients. Afterwards the vegetable is cooled, peeled and grated. After this, add the grated apple to the beets and mix. The salad can be seasoned with a teaspoon of vegetable oil or sour cream. But the fat content of sour cream should not exceed 20%, so as not to overload the stomach.
Beet salad for children with prunes
This recipe is especially suitable for babies suffering from constipation.
To prepare you will need:
- 100 g prunes;
- medium-sized beets;
- vegetable oil;
- sugar.
Boil the beets, peel and grate. Steam the washed prunes in boiling water, covering the dish with a lid, for an hour and a half. Peel it and chop it finely. Mix with beets. Season with a small amount of vegetable oil, lightly sprinkle with sugar.
Beetroot salad with prunes and nuts
If the child has learned to chew food well and chewing nuts is not a problem for him, you can prepare the following salad.
You need to prepare:
- beets – 1 pc.;
- prunes – 50 gr.;
- peeled walnuts – 50 gr.;
- low-fat cream.
Boil the beets. Wash dried fruits, pour hot water for half an hour, cut into strips, remove seeds. Grate the beets on a coarse grater. Chop the nuts with a knife and combine all ingredients. Top with cream.
Beetroot soup for children
Considering how beneficial beets are for children, there are a variety of recipes using them. You can prepare beetroot soup as a first course for lunch.
Ingredients:
- beets – 1 pc.;
- potatoes – 2-3 pcs.;
- onion – 1 pc.;
- carrots – 1 pc.;
- egg – 1 pc.;
- greenery.
Boil the beets, peel, grate or cut into strips. Chop potatoes, onions and carrots. Boil water, lightly salt it, add all the vegetables except beets. Cook for 15 minutes, then add beets. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes and turn it off. Add finely chopped egg and herbs to the prepared beetroot soup; you can season it with low-fat sour cream.
This soup is easy to prepare and kids love it.
The child will definitely like one of the recipes, and then there will be no problems with eating vegetables. If beets are introduced into the diet for the first time, you need to start with small portions of the product. Also, do not store children's meals in the refrigerator - it is better to prepare a fresh lunch for your baby every time.
On the recommendation of pediatricians, vegetable purees are introduced into the menu of babies after 6 months. Boiled beets should appear in the child’s diet a little later. This vegetable has a lot of useful properties, but if introduced early or incorrectly, it can cause harm to a newborn’s body. At what age and in what form should a baby be given beets? To answer this question, you need to find out how this root vegetable acts on the child’s body.
The benefits of beets for children
Beetroot contains many vitamins and other chemical elements that are beneficial for children. This root vegetable keeps well throughout the year, so it is especially important in spring and winter, when there is a shortage of fresh vegetables and fruits. For children, the following beneficial qualities of this vegetable are of greatest importance:
- high fiber content, which normalizes stool, increases appetite and maintains a healthy intestine;
- a sufficient amount of vitamins A, C, E, K, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, potassium, without which the normal development of a child of any age is impossible;
- the presence of antioxidants that reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases;
- the ability to stimulate the production of red blood cells due to the high concentration of iron in the composition, which is very important for the development of the brain of children, especially the first year of life;
- the content of betaine - a plant compound that protects children's liver;
- the presence of pectic acids acts as a laxative for babies suffering from constipation.
Why are beets harmful for babies?
Despite all the beneficial properties of the root vegetable, it should not be given to a child as the first vegetable complementary food. Beets can have harmful effects on a newborn:
- it has the ability to accumulate nitrates absorbed in large quantities from the soil, which can easily poison a child’s body;
- The root vegetable itself and its juice often cause allergies in children;
- Excessive consumption of beets can cause diarrhea in the baby.
However, the harm of this vegetable can be minimized if you follow simple rules. The product should be given to the baby only in the quantity recommended by doctors for his age. It is best to include beets from your own garden in your child’s diet. If this is not possible, you should choose small root vegetables of a dark burgundy color without light veins on the cut. These signs indicate that the vegetable contains a minimal amount of nitrates. You should know that newborns are given only heat-treated beets.
Freshly squeezed beet juice is also harmful to babies. This drink is very useful for adults, but it is not suitable for baby food. Beetroot juice contains many fruit acids, which irritate the delicate lining of the newborn's stomach and intestines. In addition, the juice is not heat treated, so it contains a lot of nitrates. After one year of age, pediatricians recommend giving a baby up to 60 ml of this drink per day if he is prone to constipation, always diluting it with water.
Suitable age for beet complementary feeding
From what month can you feed your baby beets? Most pediatricians recommend giving this root vegetable to babies after they reach 8 months. First, the child’s menu includes boiled beets in the form of puree. The first portion should not exceed half a teaspoon. It is better to give beets to a child in the morning in order to easily track his body’s reaction to a new product. With normal tolerance of the vegetable, the portion can be increased daily by ½ teaspoon, gradually bringing the total volume to 5 teaspoons per day. If your baby is not prone to constipation, feeding him beetroot puree twice a week is enough.
For a child who has had problems with stool (constipation) since birth, the doctor may prescribe beetroot complementary foods as early as 5 months. To achieve a laxative effect, 1 teaspoon of puree is enough for a newborn at six months. In agreement with the pediatrician, you can give your baby beet juice for the same purposes. A child who is prone to allergies or suffers from intestinal colic should not be given beets and juice from them until at least 12 months.
In what form should beets be introduced into children's diets?
Raw root vegetables contain more vitamins, but only boiled beets are suitable for infant nutrition. A vegetable that has not been thermally treated has a strong irritating effect and is more likely to cause allergies. When beets are cooked, some of the vitamins are destroyed, but the amount of fruit acids, which have an adverse effect on the children's digestive system, also decreases. In addition, during the cooking process, almost all nitrates pass into the beet broth. The elements that are most useful for children: fiber, pectin, betaine, iron, magnesium and some others are preserved.
How to cook beets for a child? It is necessary to immerse a small root vegetable in boiling water, after cutting off its upper part, where the largest amount of nitrates accumulates. There is no need to add salt: firstly, the vegetable will cook longer in salted water, and secondly, it is not recommended to add salt to the food of children in their first year of life. When 40 minutes have passed, remove the beets with a slotted spoon and place them in ice water for 20 minutes. Thanks to this trick, the root vegetable will become soft even after a short boil.
You cannot feed your baby only beet puree. Boiled beets should make up no more than 30% of the total volume of the dish. You can mix it with other vegetables: zucchini, potatoes, cabbage, pumpkin. By 12 months, a child should receive no more than 12 teaspoons of beets per day.
After a year, your baby can be offered various beet-based dishes. Children like vinaigrette, beet soup, casserole, stew, beet salad, beet pancakes. It is better to include boiled or steamed dishes in your child’s diet. When the baby turns 12 months old, he can receive beetroot juice in moderation. Advice
If you are concerned about your child's reaction to these products, consult your pediatrician.
Technological map No. 11.
There are 6 children's servings of each salad.
First, salad No. 1 - with beets and apples. Elementarily simple, light and, due to a fairly large number of apples, fresh and juicy.
The beets are thoroughly washed and boiled until fully cooked. Cooking time always depends on the size of the beets. I had the size of a small fist and cooked it in a pressure cooker for about 30 minutes. If the knife enters the beets easily and freely, it means they are ready. Drain the water, cool the beets and peel them.
Wash the apple, peel it and remove the seed nest.
Cut both the beets and the apple into small strips.
The salad is seasoned with refined vegetable oil (odorless), salt and citric acid. Since I don’t buy or use citric acid, I replaced it with a teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Mix and serve as a separate dish or side dish.
Technological map No. 10.
Cooking technology and quality requirements.
The next salad, number 2, with the beautiful name “Zarya”.
Wash the beets thoroughly, boil until tender, cool and peel.
We take a small egg, weighing about 50 grams. It must be washed and boiled until tender - 10 minutes after the water boils. Next, drain the boiling water and pour in cold water, hold the egg there for a couple of minutes, and then select, peel and chop.
Peel the onions, scald with boiling water and finely chop.
Scald canned peas with boiling water.
Cut the beets into small cubes.
Add all ingredients to a bowl and season with lemon juice, salt and vegetable oil. Quite an independent dish.
For myself, I added chopped sauerkraut to this salad and it tasted almost like a vinaigrette. By the way, already in the nursery, not only pickled cucumbers, but also sauerkraut are introduced into the children's menu. At least, I found a vinaigrette with the addition of cucumbers and sauerkraut in the kindergarten flow chart.
Technological map No. 9.
Cooking technology and quality requirements.
Well, the third option is beet caviar.
For this, as in the two previous options, rinse and boil the beets until tender. Then cool it and clean it.
Peel the onion and cut into small cubes.
Place a frying pan on the fire, heat it, pour in vegetable oil and add onions. Saute, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Keep the heat low, since we do not need frying, but tender, transparent, juicy onions.
After about 5 minutes, add a heaping teaspoon of tomato paste to the onion, mix and fry for another couple of minutes.
Cut the beets into small cubes or grate them, as I did. Add the onion to the pan, mix everything, close the lid tightly, turn the heat to low and simmer for 12-15 minutes. A couple of minutes before it’s ready, add salt, sugar, lemon juice and mix everything well.
Remove the caviar from the pan and let cool. It can be served as a side dish, or on toast, like a sandwich. Personally, I add a clove of garlic, ground pepper, coriander through a press and with black bread... Well, I really like it.
I noticed that if the onion is not heat treated, but goes into the salad raw, then it must be scalded with boiling water before cutting.
As a child, my youngest child did not like either the raw onion itself or its crunch, so I replaced it with a finely chopped apple... if, of course, it was appropriate. For me, the combination of apple and beets is very harmonious.
Well, that's all I wanted to tell you about. Choose, try, I hope your kids will like at least some of the options. After all, vegetables are an important component in the children's menu.
Bon appetit everyone!
