Our little ones have always found white potatoes to be rather boring and have flat-out refused them unless we’ve made an effort to jazz them up a bit!
So today’s recipe is one that happens to be used rather often at our house, as it’s easy to prepare and turns the plain old potato into something delicious! It’s also versatile – sometimes we use a mixture of sweet and white potatoes, which gives the dish some nicely contrasting colour and incorporates extra nutrients.
You can also add some chopped, cooked chicken to the dish as you assemble the layers, which makes it more of a complete meal – and whilst we tend to use everything up in one sitting by serving the leftover potatoes as a side dish with the family meal, you can easily freeze the leftovers if you prefer.
You can offer this dish to your baby from around 6 months of age, although it does contain onions (so you might want to wait a little longer if you feel your baby’s tummy isn’t ready for them yet).
The texture of the potatoes should be quite moist after cooking and they can be pureed for your little one (adding a little extra stock if needed), or mashed/chopped well to a suitable texture.
To Make Potatoes with Pizazz for Baby You Will Need…
1 lb potatoes (red skinned potatoes work particularly well)
1 onion
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp unsalted butter
pinch dried thyme or 3/4 tsp chopped, fresh thyme
8 fl oz (1 cup) low sodium or homemade chicken stock
Peel the potatoes and onions and slice them very thinly.
Saute the onion in 1 tsp of the butter over a very low heat for around 10 to 15 mins, until it is very soft and almost caramelized (this gives it a nice sweet flavour).
Preheat the oven to 375 deg F (180 deg C).
Grease a baking dish and cover the bottom with a layer of potato slices.
Top with some of the cooked onion and thyme, then add another potato layer. Continue layering the ingredients until they’re used up, but make sure you finish with a layer of potato.
Pour the stock over the top, then dot the potatoes with butter.
Cover with foil and bake for one hour.
Remove the foil and bake for a further 20 mins, until the potatoes are golden.
Allow to sit for 5 minutes, then serve!
Want more baby food ideas with white potatoes?
See our Potato Baby Food Recipes page, which is packed with tips and information!