Lentils Soup

Lentils water (Paruppu thanni) is the first drink opted for babies when decided to wean. A simple recipe that extracts the nutrients from pulses in an easily edible and digestible liquid form.

First start with yellow Moong gram(Paasi parupu) water as it will be so light for the tiny tummy to get accustomed to foreign food. Then move to split Red gram(Toor dal) and then finally to Red Lentil(Masoor dal).

Salt and sugar/Jaggery is not required for babies until they turn one. Recent researches emphasize this as it reduces the risk of Diabetes and Hypertension in such babies’ lifetime. Salt-less and sugarless food might taste bland to you but pls don’t compare your taste-buds with the tiny ones. It is you who introduce different tastes and textures to your baby. So, until you introduce salt and sugar, your baby will not demand for it.

I have depicted the recipe using split yellow pigeon peas/split Red gram/Toor dal.

Preparation

1.   Take 1/4 cup of dal and rinse twice in water. 2.   In a pressure cooker, add dal, cumin seeds and turmeric powder. 3.   Add Asafoetida(perungaayam) and 1 cup of water. 4.   Pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistles. Drain the dal water into a clean bowl.      Prepare just sometime before you want to feed this to baby. Feed fresh and lukewarm.

Tips/Tricks

• You can soak dal for 5 mins for faster cooking.
• First time, give this watery dal water. Next time, you can use a wide-bottomed ladle or mathu to mash the cooked dal before filtering and thus thickening the consistency gradually.
• When introducing idly(7 months), you can use thick dal water as side dip.
• As I have repeatedly mentioned, I don’t prefer adding salt for babies below 1 year.
• Warning! Mother’s milk is sufficient for babies till 6 months. Think twice and discuss with your Paed before starting other food!