When looking for super-foods for your baby, you can judge a fruit by its color; deep dark colored fruits and veggies have a lot to offer.
The vibrant color of cherries lets you know that these little beauties are packed with an antioxidant, free radical fighting, anti-inflammatory bioflavonoid phytochemical known as anthocyanin. Wow! This anthocyanin is what gives dark vibrant hues to fruits and veggies such as blueberries and eggplant.
Cherries are not known to be allergenic, however preparing them and serving them to your little one is not as easy as mashing up a banana (and mashed banana mixed with cherry puree is totally divine!). As you will see, cherries are not very pretty when cut in half and pureed so don’t be alarmed.
First, you must remove the stems and then thoroughly cleanse and wash the cherries. Be sure to pick through them and toss out any that are overly soft and squishy and/or have visible signs of damage.
Now if you happen to have a cherry pitter (which not many of us do) put it to work and pit the cherries. Without a cherry pitter, you’ll have to cut the cherries in half and then bend the halves away from the pit. For this recipe I used bing cherries– the dark red kind you can easily find at any supermarket from May to August.
Once the cherries are pitted, toss them into a blender or food processor and whizz until you have a puree. You can make the puree chunkier or totally smooth, it’s up to you. Please keep in mind that the more you puree, the more liquidy the cherries will become and, bits of the skins are normal.
Mix the puree into a variety of foods like pears or applesauce or even into chicken or pork and don’t forget the oatmeal porridge!
