There really is no comparison between brown and white rice in terms of nutritional value for your baby!
Brown rice is a ‘whole’ grain with its bran and germ layers intact, whereas white rice has had almost all of its nutrients stripped away during processing.
Using brown rice instead of white rice in all your homemade baby food recipes is one of the easiest ways to really enhance the value of your little one’s meals.
It will give his little body a wonderful boost of B vitamins, minerals, fibre and Essential Fatty Acids.
But what can you do if your baby doesn’t LIKE brown rice?
The flavour of brown rice is undoubtedly different to white – mainly because white rice doesn’t have much flavour at all!
If you start your baby on brown rice from the outset, then he’s much more likely to readily accept it into his diet.
But if you started with white rice, you might find that your little one resists a switch to brown!
Back in August last year, we posted our Top Ten Ways to Flavour Rice, which included lots of suggestions for making rice more appealing to your baby.
But today we have a flavour-filled baked brown rice recipe for you that our little one adores.
It’s tasty enough to serve to the whole family – and this recipe yields enough for four (of course, if you want to make it JUST for your baby, then simply reduce the quantities shown here).
This is a textured rice dish, so it is suitable for older babies (around 10 months+) who are chewing well.
To Make Yummy Brown Rice For Baby You Will Need
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp chopped onion (we used red, but you can use white if you prefer)
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
8 oz (1 cup) uncooked brown rice
16 fl oz (2 cups) low sodium or homemade chicken stock
2 fl oz (1/4 cup) unsweetened apple juice
pinch freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C).
Warm the oil in a frying pan/skillet and saute the onions and garlic until tender and pale gold in colour.
Add the rice to the pan and cook stirring, for another couple of minutes until you can smell a rich aroma.
Cooking the rice in the pan before baking gives it a richer flavour
Tip the mixture into a casserole dish and pour in the stock and apple juice. Add the black pepper (if using) and stir well.
Cover and cook in the oven for around 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, until the rice has soaked up all the stock.
Fluff with a fork – and your yummy brown rice is ready to serve!