Plant-Based Eating For Babies And Toddlers
Breastfeeding is still the best way to meet your baby or toddlers nutritional needs, even 200,000 years later, so breastfeed if you can.
Any restrictive diet can be more challenging for children under five, and what is good for adults does not necessarily meet kids needs, for example, low fat, high fibre foods. But whether or not your kids are vegan or vegetarian is less important than if their diet is generally healthy. There is plenty of plant-based foods that are highly processed and lacking in nutrition, and almost anything you cook at home is going to be better than almost anything that comes ready to eat in plastic packaging, both from a nutritional perspective and probably for the planet too. If you are at all anxious about meeting your kid’s needs on a plant-based diet then start out part-time, but with a little experience and knowledge, there is no reason why you can’t be a confident, full time, healthy, plant-based family if you wish.
A good simple food groups guide to consider is wholegrains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, and eggs and dairy if you choose. It’s good to keep in mind that vegan and vegetarian foods are less energy-dense so your kids may need to eat more food, more often.
If you are starting out choose a few of your families favourite kinds of meals and figure out how to make them vegan or vegetarian. It’s best if you start with flavours your family are already familiar with rather than making huge changes. For example, your favourite stir fry with cashews instead of chicken, spaghetti bolognese with lentils instead of meat, nachos, tacos and burritos are very easy to make vegetarian with kidney beans and popular with kids. I generally avoid meat replacements as I find they are hard to digest and are just as likely to put people off plant-based foods!
There are some good vegan kids resources on this page including snack recipes, nutrition guidance and a 21-day vegan challenge.
Everyone parents in different ways, so the following is not intended as advice, but simply an example of how I do things to get you started.
I personally enjoyed baby-led weaning and gave my kids finger foods and family foods right from the moment they indicated they were ready for something more substantial than breast milk. My babies favourite first foods included soft steamed veggie sticks like broccoli and carrot, big chunks of roast vegies, pasta spirals with pesto, nut butter straight from the spoon and most of all… kitchari!
Yep I know I’ve mentioned kitchari on every blog post in this series but I’m not lying when I say my family eat it every week, and it was all three of my babies favourite foods. It’s healthy, cheap and easy to cook in one pot. It doesn’t freeze well but it’s easy enough to make up fresh anyway.
Whilst I never cook meat (I don’t even know how!) I do let my children choose when they are out and about. My husband and I are vegetarian and don’t have meat in our home, so our kids aren’t accustomed to strong flavours like steak and fish, but they do sometimes like a sausage sizzle at school or a pie at a party. Intuitive eating is really important to me so I always give my kids a lot of choices about which healthy foods they put in their bodies.
As my daughter gets older she is getting more determined to be more strictly vegetarian of her own accord but I don’t force it. She’s a fussy eater and a real sweet tooth and would probably live on fruit, milk and lollies if I didn’t intervene! I doubt she’ll ever be vegan because of her love of milk, but sometimes we dream of living in the country and having our own miniature dairy cows to reduce the impact of our dairy consumption. My middle boy has always enjoyed eating much more protein (including beans and nuts) so I suspect he will continue to enjoy meat occasionally as he grows older. He’s not a fussy eater and I’ve never worried about his diet. My youngest is in that three-year-old-fussy-stage and I want to reassure you that if your kids are at that stage, most of them grow out of it! I can’t quite tell yet what his longer-term food preferences will be.
I’m really happy to let them listen to their bodies and choose for themselves. Since more people die from eating disorders than allergies I think it is really important that we raise our children to be in touch with their bodies and enjoy their food. Restrictive or obsessive diets can cause more harm mentally then the good they cause physically.
We would love to see more vegetarian meals for kids at parties and restaurants as sometimes they eat meat simply because there isn’t really anything else available!
Eggs
I didn’t eat eggs before my kids were born, but I did find my daughter needed more protein options as she was a fussy eater, plus they are a super convenient and nutritious food. We try and buy our eggs from the school chooks, or from a local farmer. I’d love to keep chickens but our backyard is not suitable. Integrated animal agriculture is a really important part of regenerative agriculture, so avoid factory farming at all costs. Plus free-range labelling is now notoriously misleading and meaningless so don’t rely on the packet, try and meet the farmers who you buy from, contact them about their regenerative farming practices and even try and visit farms if you can!
Dairy Alternatives
Oat milk is my favourite alternative to dairy milk because it is an important rotation crop and buying more oats encourages farmers to practise more sustainable regenerative agriculture. It’s also super healthy and oats increase your milk supply if you are breastfeeding. Hemp milk is also an excellent alternative as it is very nutritious and has a very low carbon footprint, but it is more difficult to find in the shops. Almond milk uses a lot of water and increasing demand for both almond and soy can still cause deforestation since the industry is not usually well-managed, but they still have lower carbon footprints than dairy milk.
You may be surprised that in baking you can often replace milk with… water! I use water in my pancake recipe and chocolate cake recipe (see below). Since we cook these things most weeks I imagine that’s reduced the carbon footprint of our food enormously over the years. Don’t knock it till you try it! I’m pretty sure you’ll have an “I-can’t-believe-it’s-vegan” moment.
I’m going to share three of my favourite kid’s recipes for you today and I’m pretty excited about these ones!!
Mac And Cheese
I looked up some regular “Mac’n’Cheese” recipes and found they generally have 500ml of milk, 40g butter and 300g cheese totalling 840g dairy. With less than 25% of the amount of dairy my version is healthier, cheaper and has lower emissions, plus my whole family loves it - mac and cheese is the ultimate comfort food! Your kids won’t even realise it’s healthy. This recipe is a good example of reducing animal products, rather than cutting them out altogether.
I make this in my thermomix but you can do it without one too.
Ingredients
160g cheese, grated
450g veggies (sweet potato, carrot, pumpkin and zucchini, peeled and roughly chopped)
300g macaroni
500g oat milk
50g flour
40g butter, cubed
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. vegetable stock concentrate (or a stock cube or some salt)
pinch of pepper
Method
Steam the veggies until soft and mushy. Keep aside.
Cook your pasta according to packet instructions. Keep aside.
Mash your veggies by hand, or puree them in your thermomix. Stir through the pasta.
Make a bechamel sauce. I put milk, flour and butter into thermomix bowl, cook for 7 min at 90°C on speed 2. Or you can do it in a saucepan, however, you usually prefer to make a bechamel sauce.
Add grated cheese, mustard, vegetable stock concentrate and pepper to mixer bowl. Mix well until cheese is melted and stir into the pasta and veggie mix.
Vegan ‘Sausage’ Rolls
I must have made thousands of these little vegan sausage rolls over the years. I created the recipe over many episodes of trial and error as I wanted egg-free vegetarian sausage rolls to share with my Indian vegetarian friends. Hindu people don’t traditionally count eggs as vegetarian but do have dairy products.
These are not gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but they are universally popular and many people are surprised they aren’t meat, cause let’s face it, how much actual meat is in a sausage roll anyway? The ingredients seem a little odd but somehow it works like magic so don’t dismiss this recipe until you’ve tried it.
My kids request them most birthday parties and guests always ask for the recipe. I also often have them in the freezer for lunchboxes and just pop them in frozen and they defrost by lunchtime.
I just use packet pastry and I usually choose butter puff pastry as I’m concerned about the health impacts of hydrogenated vegetable oils often used in commercially produced pastry, and especially the impact of palm oil on orangutan habitats. I’ll leave that ethical dilemma with you! There really is no way of living in this world without hypocrisy, but we can try. You can choose vegan pastry if you prefer, or make your own. If you know a good brand, leave us a comment.
This is a really big batch as we usually share them or freeze them. You can halve it if you like.
Makes 48 Mini Sausage Rolls
Ingredients
2 onions
2 carrots
250g sunflower seeds
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 x 300g packets silken tofu
2 cup rolled oats
6 tablespoons soy sauce
ground pepper, to taste
2 packets of your prefered frozen puff pastry sheets (6 sheets)
Method
Get puff pastry out to defrost.
Chop the onions in a food processor (or thermomix 5 seconds, speed 5,) place in a separate bowl.
Chop the carrots in a food processor (or thermomix 5 seconds, speed 5), add to onions.
Roughly chop sunflower seeds in thermomix or with your food processor, add to onion/carrot mix.
Add all other ingredients expect pastry to bowl and mix well by hand. You might literally need to get your hands in there!
Cut each puff pastry sheet in half and spread with some of the filling. Roll and chop into 6 mini sausage rolls. Repeat with remaining mixture and pastry.
Bake at 180 Degrees Celcius for 30- 45 minutes. Turn sausage rolls over halfway, if needed.
Vegan Chocolate Cake
I discovered and adapted this recipe for birthday parties because I was aiming for a cake that avoids as many common allergens as possible like nuts, milk and dairy. I always get really sad at parties when there is one kid who always misses out because of allergies. This one is clearly not suitable for celiacs but I’m not that much of a magician in the kitchen!
Now I make this recipe all the time cause it’s actually just the best, most delicious and moist chocolate cake ever, so quick and simple!
I recently noticed Nigella has had the same eye-opening experience with vegan chocolate cake...“This cake. It confounds me. It delights me. I never ever thought I would be in raptures about the joyfulness of a – yes – vegan chocolate cake. I now make this as my chocolate cake of choice for people where dietary restrictions are not an issue, and I don’t even need to explain it’s vegan.”
I haven’t tried her recipe yet but you can find it here. It’s a little fancier than mine! https://www.nigella.com/recipes/dark-and-sumptuous-chocolate-cake
This cake is good with icing, so you can make any old icing but if you want to try vegan icing I recommend this coconut icing or this gooey chocolate icing made with dates and cashews.
This makes two round cakes. Also works well as cupcakes if you prefer, reduce the cooking time slightly and it will make about 48 cupcakes.
Ingredients
450g flour
260g sugar
40g cocoa
2 tsp. Bicarb
2 tsp. Vinegar
150g olive oil
350g water
Method
Mix all ingredients in thermomix or by hand in a large bowl and then pour into two greased round cake tins.
Bake at 180 Degrees Celcius for 30-45 minutes.
Yep, it’s really that simple.
Learn More About The Plant-based Series >>> Plant-Based Eating For Beginners , Plant-Based Eating For Postpartum and Plant-Based Eating For Pregnancy.
