Rice recipes for baby food

Homemade Baby Rice Cereal - Yummy Toddler Food

Learn the easiest way to make the best homemade Baby Rice Cereal. It’s a perfect Stage 1 baby food that’s high in nutrients, easy to store, and easy to customize with lots of fresh flavors for months of yummy eating!

Baby Rice Cereal

I love to start solids with a range of flavors, textures, and nutrients, and whole grains are a great option to include as a first food. With my first two kids, I didn’t even think of making rice cereal at home, but once I learned how easy it is—and how well it stores and how much less it can cost—I became a big fan!

This easy recipe is for a single-grain infant cereal that’s rich in B vitamins and zinc and is naturally gluten-free. It’s easy to make, and it’s a wonderfully creamy consistency.

The AAP recommends we offer a range of foods from the start, including a variety of food groups, for healthy growth in babies.

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Ingredients You Need

Here’s a look at how to make this infant rice cereal so you know what to look for at the store.

Short-grain brown rice: This grain is my preference over white rice or long-grain brown rice because I like the end texture and flavor. It also tends to be less starchy, which makes for a better final texture in the baby cereal.

It will work with any style of brown rice, though, if you can only find long grain.

You can then add in flavors from other Baby Food Purees to make easy baby food combinations as baby grows and explores new foods.

How to Lower Arsenic Levels in Rice

There is a concern with the heavy metals, particularly arsenic, in baby food. Arsenic is often also present in rice. There are two ways to lower the potential amounts.

Use Lundberg brand rice, which regularly tests for arsenic and aims to keep the amounts of arsenic lower than the FDA standard.
Cook rice in a lot of water, like you would pasta. Once the rice is tender, you can drain off the excess liquid, which removes as much of the arsenic as possible.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Here’s a look at how to make this recipe. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the full information.

Soak the rice for at least 2 hours (optional but recommended to ensure the rice is soft and easy to cook well).
Drain, rinse, and add to a pot with water. Cook the rice as directed.
Blend with liquid—such as breast milk, formula, or water—to make a baby cereal puree.
Add in any desired flavors and serve or store.

TIP: Soaking the rice may make it a little easier to digest, and it can cut down on the cooking time a bit. You can skip it if you don’t have the time, though!

Frequently Asked Questions

When can you start feeding a baby rice cereal?

The traditional method of starting solids has you start rice cereal at 4 months. Newer guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that we wait until 6 months to start babies on solid food.

What’s the best baby cereal to start with?

I prefer to start with Baby Oatmeal or Baby Rice Cereal as both are made with whole grains that are nutrient-rich, easy to make, and are easy for baby to digest.

Is baby cereal high in arsenic?

There have been some findings showing that many baby cereals are high in arsenic, which is commonly found in grains including rice. I like making my own since I can control more for that issue to avoid heavy metal exposure. (It sounds like many companies are having success lowering the amounts, as is reported by the FDA—but many still consider them to be too high.)

I prefer to use Lundberg Short Grain Brown Rice for both the texture and flavor, but also because they are very transparent about their testing for arsenic, which I appreciate. If you don’t have that option, you can cook the rice like you would pasta in a large pot of water, then drain the water off when the rice is cooked and that will remove much of it. That is an easy way to lower arsenic exposure.

How is this different from store-bought baby cereal?

It can be less expensive to make it this way as compared to some organic baby cereals and I find that the flavor tastes better. One difference to be aware of is that baby cereal from the store is usually fortified with iron, which babies need to ingest starting around 6 months when the iron stores they are born with start to run out. Be sure to include iron-rich foods in baby’s diet from the start.

How to Freeze Homemade Baby Cereal

You can cook the rice and freeze it, then blend it whenever you’d like. Or, you can cook the rice, blend the cereal, and freeze that into baby-size portions. Then you can thaw a portion or two at a time based on your needs. It’s very versatile!

Baby Cereal with Butternut Squash Puree

Baby Food Combinations to Try

You can use water, breastmilk, or formula as your liquid in this recipe, or even unsweetened plain nondairy milk. Then, if you want to add flavor and nutrients once baby is used to eating either Stage 1 or Stage 2 baby foods, you can add in:

Apple Puree
Banana Puree
Peanut Butter Puree
Pear Puree
Plain Whole Milk Yogurt
Spinach Puree
Sweet Potato Puree

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How to Store

Store cereal in the fridge in airtight containers for up to 2 days. Store leftover cereal in the freezer by filling an ice cube tray. Freeze overnight, then transfer to a zip top freezer bag to store for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge, and add additional warm water, breastmilk, or formula to serve.

Best Tips for Success

Use short-grain brown rice for the least starchiness. I prefer Lundberg short-grain brown rice, as it’s regularly tested for levels of arsenic.
If your rice isn’t very soft at the end of the cooking time, add ½ cup additional water and cook until soft. Different brands and types of rice take a different amount of time to cook, so there will be some variation in the liquid and time if you make this with a different kind of rice, which is fine!
If you skip soaking the rice, you may need additional water and cooking time.
When blending, wait to decide if you need additional liquid until the mixture is as smooth as possible. It thickens up a lot once the rice is very well blended.
Incorporate iron-fortified cereals, too, and try my other single-grain cereals including Quinoa Baby Food and Baby Oatmeal.
You may also like my multigrain Baby Porridge.
Add any baby food puree for additional flavor. I like Butternut Squash Puree, Sweet Potato Puree, Banana Puree, and Apple Puree.

Related Recipes

I’d love to hear your feedback on this recipe if you try it for your little one, so please comment below!

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Author Amy Palanjian

Cuisine American

Course Baby Food

Calories 80kcal

Servings 9

▢ 1 cup short grain brown rice
▢ 2 1/2 cups water
▢ 1-1 1/2 cups water, breastmilk, or formula, divided

Optional: Add rice to a pot or bowl and cover with an inch or two of water. Let soak for 2-8 hours.
Drain rice in a fine-mesh sieve, rinsing thorough.
Add rice to a medium pot with 2 ½ cups water. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until rice is very soft and fluffy and the water is fully absorbed. (If the rice is not very soft, add ½ cup additional water and cook a little longer.) Remove from heat and cover. Let sit for at least 10 minutes.
(At this point, you can store the rice in the fridge for 3-5 days in an airtight container until ready to proceed if desired.)
Add 2 cups of the rice to a blender with 1 cup water, breastmilk, or formula. Blend, starting on low and working up to high, adding up to an additional ½ cup water to make a thin puree. Stop and scrape down the sides of the blender as needed.
Serve or store for later.

Calphalon 5-Quart Pot
Storage Containers

Store cereal in the fridge in airtight containers for up to 2 days.
Store leftover cereal in the freezer by filling an ice cube tray. Freeze overnight, then transfer to a zip-top freezer bag to store for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge, and add additional warm water, breastmilk, or formula to serve.
Use short-grain rice for the least starchiness.
I prefer Lundberg short-grain brown rice, as it’s regularly tested for low levels of arsenic.
If your rice isn’t very soft at the end of the cooking time, add ½ cup additional water and cook until soft. Different brands and types of rice take a different amount of time to cook, so there will be some variation in the liquid and time if you make this with a different kind of rice, which is fine!
If you skip soaking the rice, you may need additional water and cooking time.
When blending, wait to decide if you need additional liquid until the mixture is as smooth as possible. It thickens up a lot once the rice is very well blended.
Add any baby food puree for additional flavor. I like Butternut Squash Puree, Sweet Potato Puree, Banana Puree, and Apple Puree but any will work.

Calories: 80kcal, Carbohydrates: 17g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 1g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Sodium: 4mg, Potassium: 60mg, Fiber: 1g, Calcium: 9mg, Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Rate in the comments and tag @yummytoddlerfood on IG!

This post was first published January 2020.

Cheesy Vegetable and Brown Rice Pot for Babies

A healthy and warming brown rice meal for babies that cooks easily in one pot! This has an amazing flavor and a soft but sticky texture that baby can manage from a spoon, or fork, or their hands. A tasty textured baby meal for older babies, also ideal for baby led weaning.

This recipe was first published in April 2018, and has been updated in 2022 with new photos and a video.

We had a lot of success introducing rice to our first baby, who was a little tricky when it came to texture. She did well with it’s fairly soft texture, and enjoyed the control it gives her; she could decide exactly how much she picked up with her hands or bit off her fork.

This brown rice pot was a favorite in our home, and has since been enjoyed by so many other families too (the little ones and the grownups!), so is well worth your time if you’re looking for a rice based recipe for your little ones.

It’s an easy one pot recipe…

This meal is super easy, and all cooks in one dish. Since the vegetables cook in the same pan as the rice, all of the flavor (and nutrition) stays in! Which is how we end up with something so tasty, yet salt free and simple.

You just sauté some veggies and herbs and then cook the brown rice right in the same pan. Since brown rice takes a while to cook, those veggies boil for a long time so they turn super soft. Then you will melt cheese in so that it becomes moist and a little sticky. It can be cooked shorter or longer, mashed or unmashed, depending on your desired texture.

What Age Is It Best for?

The texture of this dish is very flexible and works for a range of babies.

You can also spoon feed this to your baby as a textured baby food. Ideal for older babies, maybe 9-10 months plus.
It’s perfect for babies who like to self feed with their hands or follow baby led weaning. A baby with a pincer grasp can easily pick up small bites to feed themselves. A baby without a pincer grasp can grab a sticky handful and shovel it in.
It is also great for older babies or toddlers who are learning to use utensils because it sticks so easily to them.
If you have an extremely good blender or baby food maker, you could puree it as an early baby food. Mine would never get rice smooth enough, so only do this if your blender has proven itself!

You can also control the texture a little, as you can see from the two different photoshoots that we’ve done for this recipe, it turned out a little different both times:

On the left side, it’s been made so that the rice is still fluffy and distinct and the vegetables are still in cubes (soft, but distinct pieces). On the right side, it’s been cooked with some extra liquid, and stirred and mashed a little bit to break up the vegetables and make the whole result stickier and softer. Each will suit different babies at different stages.

Making this as a side dish for the whole family

This is one of the baby food recipes that adults love too, I was shocked by how flavorful this dish was considering how few ingredients are present! It’s as if the rice were cooked in vegetable stock, but with no salt. It would make a great side dish for the whole family if you want to double the recipe!

Some variations on the recipe

Try with other veggies! Squashes and sweet potato work well here.
Add some chopped garlic along with the mixed herbs for added flavor.
Substitute a little bit of the brown rice for red lentils. The lentils will puree and add some extra creaminess to the sauce.
Once your baby can handle more texture, add some beans or peas at the end of the cooking time.

Storing your leftovers

These freeze well for up to 6 months in baby food containers. They will continue to serve you well as your baby gets older.

Cheesy Vegetable and Brown Rice Pot for Babies

A healthy and warming meal for babies that cooks easily in one pot! This has an amazing flavor and a soft but sticky texture that baby can manage from a spoon, or fork, or their hands. {Textured baby food + Baby led weaning.}

5 -10 servings

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 40 mins

Total Time: 45 mins

4. 61 from 104 ratings

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

1 medium carrot, chopped into small chunks
1 medium parsnip, chopped into small chunks
1-2 tsp of mixed herbs
½ cup (90 g) dried brown rice
1 cup (75 g) grated cheddar cheese

In a small saucepan, sautee your carrots and parsnips in a little olive oil or butter to start softening them.
Add herbs and brown rice, and cook for another minute or so, until fragrant.
Add 1 and 1/2 cups (350mls) of water.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for 40 minutes, until the rice is cooked.
Stir in the cheese until melted.
OPTIONAL – you can use a fork to mash up the carrot and parsnip pieces if you prefer a more uniform texture. They are very soft and will easily disintegrate with a little encouragement.

This is a very flexible recipe and you can certainly mix up the vegetables included. Try some of these optional add-ins: 1 clove of crushed garlic (added with the herbs), peas (added 5mins before the end of the cooking time), broccoli (added the the start), a couple tablespoons of red lentils (added with the rice).

This recipe makes 5-10 servings, depending on whether it’s for a smaller baby or a bigger toddler. Nutritional information is calculated based on 1/10th of the recipe.

Cuisine: European

Author: Christine Melanson

Serving: 1g, Calories: 76kcal, Carbohydrates: 7g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 11mg, Sodium: 78mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g

Silicone Baby Food Freezer Tray with Clip-on Lid

Bamboo Stay Put Suction Bowl + Spoon

Babymoov Storage Bowls for Toddlers

90,000 rice dishes for little gourmets. Cooking articles and life hacks

Children can be the most severe food critics. And sometimes you have to work hard to please them. Fortunately, we always have rice at our disposal, from which we can cook win-win dishes. We offer to create an interesting children's menu together with the trademark "National".

Invigorating porridge

Nothing could be easier than making delicious rice porridge that any child would love to eat. Just take "Kuban" rice "National". White round polished grains of soft grades are the key to success. Bring 150 ml of water to a boil in a saucepan, pour 50 g of rice with a pinch of salt and cook until swollen. Then pour in 150 ml of hot milk and bring the rice to readiness. At the end, put a slice of butter with 1 tsp into the porridge. honey. Grate half an apple and add to the porridge when it cools down a bit. Before serving, lightly sprinkle it with cinnamon - the seductive aroma will definitely awaken the child's appetite. nine0003

Salad kaleidoscope

Salad with rice, vegetables and ham successfully diversifies the children's menu. Here, long-grain rice "Jasmine" "National" is most organically felt. Snow-white soft grains perfectly retain their shape during cooking, acquiring a pleasant aroma and delicate taste. Boil 100 g of rice until al dente and drain in a colander. Cut into thin slices 50 g of turkey ham. Cut the red sweet pepper into cubes, 1 cucumber into thin strips. We combine vegetables with ham, rice and 80 g of canned peas. You can add grated cheese. We dress the salad with natural unsweetened yogurt and decorate with fresh herbs. nine0003

Air patties

Hearty rice patties will not refuse even zealous picky eaters. Especially if you make them from rice "Japanese" "National". This white round-grain variety has an important feature - its grains have increased stickiness. Boil 150 g of rice in salted water, combine with 100 g of flour, 1 egg, 2 tbsp. l. sour cream, a pinch of salt and knead the dough. We form cutlets, roll in ground bran and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 ° C. At this time, fry in a pan grated zucchini with chopped garlic clove, 1 tbsp. l. flour and 2 tbsp. l. sour cream. Puree the cooled mass with a blender. This vegetable sauce will successfully complement the rice cakes. nine0003

Delicious hedgehogs

Rice pairs perfectly with meat, and mouth-watering hedgehogs are a prime example of this. To make them tastier, take “Giant” “National” rice for cooking. It is a large variety of rice traditionally used for risotto and paella. It perfectly absorbs the aromas of other ingredients and has a creamy taste. Cook until half cooked 200 g of rice in salted water, mix with 500 g of ground beef, egg, a pinch of salt and pepper. We sculpt hedgehogs and brown in a pan with butter on all sides. Next, place them on a baking sheet and send them to the oven for 30 minutes. A suitable side dish for them would be lush mashed potatoes or fresh vegetables. nine0003

Pilaf with a twist

Fragrant rice with chicken and persimmon little gourmets will not leave without attention. In many ways, this is the merit of white medium-grain rice "Adriatica" "National". It deeply absorbs all the aromas and tastes, which is why the pilaf is so rich. In a deep frying pan, make a frying of carrots, onions and 1 tbsp. l. grated parsley root. We put a cinnamon stick and 300 g of chicken fillet in cubes, fry for 5 minutes. Next, pour 200 g of rice, pour 500 ml of chicken broth, cover and simmer until the liquid has completely evaporated. 5 minutes before the end, stir in the persimmon pulp slices. nine0003

Sunny Soup

Pumpkin puree soup enlivens the lunch menu. Complement it with long-grain polished rice "Selected" "National". Its grains retain their shape during cooking and give the soup interesting flavor notes. Cook until half cooked 250 g of rice. We make golden browning of onions and carrots in a saucepan. Pour 350 g of pumpkin into cubes to it, fry for a couple of minutes, pour 1.5 liters of boiling water and cook until softened. We lay the rice, bring it to readiness right in the soup, let it cool and beat everything with a blender. Pour in 100 ml of cream and, stirring, simmer the soup over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle soup bowls with chopped herb croutons, and the kids can do it in no time. nine0003

Surprise pudding

What is a children's menu without dessert? Delicate rice pudding "Krasnodar" "National" will bring special joy to children. This white polished round-grain rice of soft varieties brings out the best taste qualities in homemade baking. Melt 50 g of butter in a saucepan and fry 100 g of rice for a minute. Pour in 600 ml of warm milk and cook the rice for 15 minutes. We rub 2 yolks with 50 g of sugar, and beat 2 proteins in a lush foam. We introduce them one by one into the milk-rice mixture, pour a handful of raisins and mix gently. We fill the oiled ceramic molds with this mass and put in the oven at 190°C for 20 minutes. Little gourmets will be delighted.

Rice dishes are indispensable in children's diet. After all, they are not only tasty, satisfying, but also useful. These qualities are most organically combined in National rice. With it, you can constantly delight little gourmets with interesting dishes for every taste.

How to diversify the children's menu? Rice dishes | Food and cooking

Rice groats are very healthy and nutritious. Rice contains little fat and a lot of carbohydrates, enough protein and essential minerals such as magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and calcium. At the same time, rice does not contain gluten, which means that it can be introduced into the diet even for children with an allergy to wheat. nine0003

Usually, rice porridge is introduced into the diet of infants as the first complementary food after breast milk. Nutritious, easily digestible and palatable, rice cereal porridge contains a large amount of substances necessary for a growing organism - vitamins and microelements. Every mother wants her baby to eat healthy foods, so today we will cook rice dishes.

Pilaf with chicken

Of course, this dish is very different from the traditional pilaf, but, nevertheless, it is very tasty and will surely please not only your little gourmet, but also yourself. Such pilaf can be given to children from 8-10 months. For "baby pilaf" I take one skinless chicken breast, a couple of medium carrots, half an onion, a little parsley or basil, and about half a cup of long-grain rice. Three carrots on a grater, cut the onion into small cubes, finely chop the parsley. Boil the chicken until half cooked in a whole piece, and then cut into small cubes and stew until tender, along with onions and carrots and rice in the broth in which it was cooked. nine0003

The peculiarity of this dish is that it is prepared without oil, which means that it can be eaten not only by small children, but also by those who follow a diet and watch their figure. Carrots will give the rice a beautiful color. For adults, I add curry seasoning to this dish, and for children after a year, you can put a small bay leaf for flavor and benefit 5 minutes before cooking. Bay leaf contains essential oils that have a beneficial effect on digestion, increase immunity and are beneficial for the body as a whole. nine0003

Rice hedgehogs

Small rice balls are an excellent side dish for meat puree for a little gourmet. And adults can eat them as an independent dish with a spicy cheese-garlic sauce. To cook the hedgehogs, I first boil the porridge with 1 cup milk, 1 cup water, and ¾ cup rice. In the finished porridge, I add a well-beaten raw egg, a little olive oil, salt and fresh chopped dill to taste. I sculpt hedgehogs from the resulting mixture and stew them in a deep frying pan with a small amount of water, under the lid. Hedgehogs for adults can not be stewed, but rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in oil. nine0003

Decorate your hedgehogs to make sure your little one is real. Slice the pitted black olives. Circles with holes will be the eyes of hedgehogs, and halves of olives will be hedgehog noses.

Rice soufflé with fruits

An excellent dessert that can be fed to both adults and children from 6 months. For cooking, we need rice, fresh pears and sweet apples, raisins and milk or cream. Rice and raisins should be thoroughly washed and soaked for a couple of hours in cold water. Peel and peel apples and pears, cut into cubes, mix with rice. All this is placed in small portioned pots and poured with milk or cream. There should be enough milk so that the fruit does not float in it, but is only slightly soaked. We send it to a well-heated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. nine0003

For children over one year old, the finished dessert can be sprinkled with a little brown sugar or honey.