Avocado Puree (Homemade Baby Food)
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure.My creamy avocado puree recipe is a perfect first food for your baby! Packed with essential nutrients for growth and development, it requires no special equipment and is ready in less than 5 minutes. This avocado baby food will quickly become one of your favorite baby food recipes, and the best part is that babies love it!
Avocado is one of the best first foods to introduce to your baby. It is buttery, creamy, and super soft and has amazing health benefits to aid in your baby’s growth and brain development.
It was actually my daughter’s first solid food and it quickly became a favorite of hers! When I was first introducing avocado to baby, I mixed avocado and breast milk together to form a creamy liquid. Making avocado puree for babies is totally effortless.
With just a quick mash up I was able to create a healthy food that I felt good about giving both of my kids when they were starting on solids!
👩🏽🍳 Why I Love This Recipe
My baby avocado puree requires no special equipment and takes just minutes to make. All you need is a ripe avocado, a little liquid, and a fork or blender. I would often double or triple the recipe and store it in the fridge or freezer, which made it great for meal prep. It’s also incredibly convenient for busy parents.
Avocados are also a nutritional powerhouse! They are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and just half an avocado provides a good portion of your daily values of Vitamins C, E, K, Folate, Magnesium, Potassium, most B Vitamins, and about 19% of your total fat needs (source).
Plus, my homemade avocado first baby food is less sweet than many other types of baby puree and has a similar fat content to mother’s milk, making it easier for babies to digest. I have found, through my experience with my own kids and with working with other parents, that it’s important to keep a baby’s diet simple and limit the amount of sugar.
My recipe is 100% baby approved! Babies love the creamy, buttery texture of this puree and it’s easy for them to swallow. And as your baby grows, you can try different variations and mix-ins to keep things interesting like combining it with my blueberry baby food or my green bean puree.
Latest Recipe Video!
🥘 Ingredients
My avocado baby food recipe is the easiest recipe ever. At its most minimal form, you will only need 1 avocado! Scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of the post for more details.
Avocado: Nutrient-rich avocado makes a wonderful first food for babies with healthy fats and vitamins (source). I always used organic avocado when making baby food.
Breast Milk, Formula, Or Water: You’ll need a small amount of liquid to create the perfect creamy texture. If using water, I’ve found that you just need a little or it can get runny. If you’re mixing avocado and breastmilk or formula I recommend doing it right before serving. You can’t store this baby food after it’s been mixed with breastmilk or formula.
🔪 How To Make Avocado Puree For Baby
The great news is that learning how to make avocado baby food is super easy! If you’re wondering do you cook avocado for baby food, the answer is no! It requires no cooking at all, and there are two simple ways to do it: blend or mash!
Watch my video below for a step-by-step guide on how to puree avocado for baby.
Prepare Avocado: To begin, I cut open my ripe avocado, remove the pit, scoop the flesh out, and discard the peels. When making my avocado puree recipe for baby all of the skin should be removed.
Blend: There are two methods for how to puree avocado. You can blend the whole avocado in a small food processor or use a fork to make mashed avocado for baby. If you’re using a blender, I recommend a high powered blender to make the puree in bulk – like a Vitamix!
Serve: If serving immediately mix pureed avocado with breast milk, formula, or water to reach desired consistency. If freezing for later use, divide into an ice cube tray, cover, and store in the freezer. When ready to serve, thaw out the prepared avocado, mix milk, and feed.
✔️ How To Choose The Best Avocado
Most grocery stores have avocados available at various stages of ripeness. If you plan to make my avocado baby puree in a few days from now, I suggest choosing hard avocados that have time to soften. If you want to make the puree right away, select an avocado that is dark brown on the outside and slightly indents when pushing against the skin.
Avoid an overly ripe and mushy avocado. Also, if you can afford it, I recommend using 100% organic ingredients for your baby’s food.
🥑 How To Cut An Avocado
I cut fresh avocados in half with a sharp knife, gently twisting to separate the two halves. I remove the pit either with my hands or by carefully hitting my knife into it and then twisting to remove the seed from the flesh. Then, I scoop the avocado flesh out with a spoon.
Once the flesh is removed, you don’t have to cut the avocado any further. My avocado recipe for baby has you mash or blend the whole fruit.
💭 Expert Tips
My #1 Secret Tip when making my easy avocado puree for your baby is to mix it with breast milk or formula right before serving. Mixing just before serving prevents bacterial growth, maintains the best texture, and ensures your baby gets the maximum nutritional benefits from both the avocado and the milk.
Other Tips To Keep In Mind:
- Prevent Browning: Avocado can brown quickly once exposed to air. To minimize browning, you can add a small amount of lemon or lime juice to the puree. Another option is to store the puree in an airtight container with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface to limit air exposure.
- Use A Fine Mesh Sieve: For an ultra-smooth puree, pass the mashed or blended avocado through a fine mesh sieve. This ensures there are no lumps, making it easier for younger babies to swallow.
- Speed Up Avocado Ripening: To ripen avocados quickly, I’ll place them in a brown paper bag with an apple or banana. The ethylene gas produced by these fruits speeds up the ripening process. Check the avocados daily to ensure they don’t become overripe.
🍽 How To Serve To Baby
If you prefer a clean space with minimal clean up, you will want to spoon feed your baby. However, if you are opting for baby led weaning, you can place the puree in front of your little one and let them explore on their own terms. I did both types of feeding techniques with my kids, and found a combination worked best.
Here are some of the different ways to serve my homemade avocado baby food based on age, as well as your child’s preference:
- Avocado puree for 4 month baby: Super simple avocado is a perfect first food for babies! I recommend feeding mashed avocado/puree to babies 4 months and up. Place the puree in a bowl and feed it to your baby with a spoon. Once they get a little older you can explore different textures and shapes.
- Avocado puree for 6 month old baby: If you are exploring baby led weaning, you can offer thick strips of avocado. Place the avocado on their high chair tray and let them experiment. To help with gripping, leave part of the skin on or roll the avocado slices in hemp seeds.
- Avocado puree for 9-10 month old baby: At this age your baby can enjoy more finger food. Try putting cubed avocado in baby’s bowl and let them naturally explore the taste and feel.
Other Ways To Use Pureed Avocado
- Make my baby food avocado recipe as a dip for fruits and vegetables
- Use it as a spread for sandwiches or avocado toast with honey (note: don’t use honey for babies under 1 year of age)
- In avocado quesadillas or this healthy guacamole
- As a sauce for pasta
- Mixed with pressure cooker quinoa, couscous, or brown rice
- As a topping for pizza
- Use my baby avocado recipe as an additional ingredient in smoothies (like this avocado peanut butter smoothie), muffins, or even healthy cookies!
Ultimately, there are so many suggestions on how to feed a baby avocado. Go with what works best for you and your little one!
📖 Avocado Baby Food Combinations
Avocados are a great first food for babies because of their mild flavor. They pair really well with a variety of other fruits, veggies, and grains to create delicious and nutritious baby food purees. There are so many baby friendly avocado recipes you can try out! Here are some of my favorite avocado puree ideas to get you started:
Avocado Puree Pairings
- Soft Fruits And Veggies: If you aren’t sure of what to mix with my avocado puree for baby, start with foods similar in texture like bananas, apples, or sweet potato puree.
- Other Fruits: Mangoes, peaches, blueberries, pineapple, and strawberries all taste great with pureed avocado.
- Green Veggies: Try other pairings like mixing with spinach, broccoli, zucchini puree or pea puree.
- Root Veggies: Veggies like potatoes, butternut squash, and carrots all mix well with avocado food for baby.
- On Its Own: When your baby is little, it’s great on its own! Most little ones love this avocado stage 1 baby food. Honestly, sometimes my kids, who are older now, will still just eat avocado as a snack!
- With Grains: You can put the smooth puree on small sticks of toast or teething crackers. You could also mix it into baby oatmeal or baby cereal.
- With Dairy Or Plant Based Protein: Try mixing it with yogurt or cottage cheese! You can also puree it with chickpeas, lentils, or white beans for an avocado “hummus.”
- Different Spices: Try a pinch of lemon juice, cumin, coriander, or even curry powder.
- Ideas For Toddlers: As your baby gets older try adding the puree to smoothies, avocado toast, guacamole, or on top of Mexican food! You can pair avocado with small pieces of chicken breast, or if you are vegan, substitute with tofu.
- Baby Friendly Guacamole: Try experimenting with different flavors by blending avocado with lime juice, olive oil, kosher salt, and 1 garlic clove. This is perfect to pair with Mexican recipes or Spanish recipes, and the whole family can enjoy it too!
🧊 Storage Directions
After you learn how to prepare avocado for baby, it’s just as important to know how to store it properly so it stays fresh. And if you’ve been wondering – can you freeze pureed avocado for baby? Yes! You totally can!
Fridge
I store extra puree in an airtight container in the fridge for the next day. I recommend finding small food storage containers that leave less room for air, and evenly portion it out. You can add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice or lime juice to the exposed part of the puree to prevent browning if desired.
Freezer
When freezing, I divide my avocado puree baby food evenly into an ice cube tray. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap or use a freezer storage bag. You can also find baby food container trays that come with lids to cover like these Mumi & Bubi ice cube trays. I love them because they come with a cover, a recipe book, and the cubes are super easy to get out. One ice cube is equal to 1 tablespoon or 1 ounce of food.
Once the cubes are frozen (takes about 4-6 hours), pop them out of the ice cube trays and transfer them to a ziptop freezer safe bag for easy storage.
Reheating Or Thawing
When preparing avocado for baby, I would always thaw any frozen puree in the fridge the night before use. You can also thaw it by placing the puree cube in a small bowl over another bowl of hot water and letting it sit to defrost. Once defrosted, mix with breast milk, formula, or water to reach the desired consistency.
❓Recipe FAQs
You may be wondering – when can you introduce avocados to baby? This will depend on their own personal development and when they are ready to start solid foods, but typically it’s around 4-6 months of age. I gave both of my kids avocado as their first food when they were around 5 months old.
Pay attention to gross motor skills for an indication that your baby is ready! This could include having strong neck and head control, sitting, and lifting objects to the mouth.
No, avocado is not considered to be a common allergen for babies! However, if this is your first time giving avocado to baby I recommend starting off with a smaller portion of avocado and waiting for 2-3 days to observe for any signs of an allergic reaction such as a rash or upset stomach.
While technically you can steam avocado mash for baby, you don’t have to! There isn’t any need to steam or cook avocado for baby food since it is already so soft and creamy! This makes it super easy – you do not have to worry about extra steps like you might with other produce. Simply cut, scoop, and mash for an easy creamy puree.
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📋 Recipe Card
🎥 Watch How to Make It
Avocado Puree: Baby’s First Food
Ingredients
- 1 avocado mashed
Instructions
If Serving Fresh / Immediately
- Mash the avocado with a fork or blend it in a food processor.
- Mix with breastmilk, formula or water to reach desired consistency.
If Freezing
- Mash the avocado with a fork or blend it in a food processor.
- Divide into ice cube trays, wrap/cover, and freeze.
- Thaw in the fridge the night before use, or thaw by putting the ice cube in a bowl over a bowl of hot water on the counter to defrost.
- Once defrosted, mix with breastmilk, formula or water to reach desired consistency and serve immediately.
Notes
- Use ripe avocados that are soft and easy to mash.
- Store the puree in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- If you are making this puree to store in the fridge or freezer, do not add breastmilk or formula before storing it. Only add breastmilk or formula right before serving.
- Each ice cube = 1oz of food. Also, as your baby gets used to solids, you don’t have to thin out the avocado at all.
Wish I had seen recipes like this when my kids were younger! Quick, easy and fresh; the perfect baby food, indeed!
Totally! Thanks Sara!
I made this for my daughter and she loved it! And I loved how easy it was to make!
Aw yay, so happy to hear that Tayler!
This was soooo easy to make! Every time I make a batch I’m surprised at how simple it really is to make your own baby food. I keep mine in mini mason jars in the fridge.
Yes!! It’s super simple and babies love it! 🙂
One of my cowokers has a 6 month old and she would love this recipe – so much more budget friendly and healthier than store bought baby food.
Thanks Shashi!
I am a huge avocado fan and I wish I had this recipe when my children were babies. I am passing this to my niece since she just had a baby a few months ago. She is introducing her to baby food now and I can’t wait for her to try this.
Oh awesome! I hope her baby loves it!
Tasty, healthy and easy to make avocado puree! I and my baby brother grown up eating avocado puree. Mums are great!
Thanks Hayley!
Trying this idea on my granddaughter – so simple and naturally creamy too.
I’m sure she will love it Amanda!
This sounds so healthy and nutritious. Very informative and helpful too. Thanks
It really is! Thanks Veena!
Do you need to add anything to the avocado puree to keep it from turning brown? I plan to freeze the puree
Hi Debbie! You can add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice to it to prevent it from turning brown before you freeze it. But if you freeze it immediately after you puree / mash it, and then only defrost what you need (and use it immediately) then it shouldn’t brown!
How long does this stay good in the freezer?
It will keep for up to 6 months in the freezer! But I typically like to use it within 3-4 months.
Nice and simple thank you
No prob! Hope your little one likes it!
Can the avocado be mixed with breast milk and then frozen?
Hi Katie! I think technically, that is ok to do – you can freeze freshly made purees with freshly pumped breastmilk. But, you should never freeze any foods containing previously frozen breast milk, since you can’t freeze, thaw and re-freeze breastmilk. Additionally, personally, I never felt comfortable with adding breastmilk to purees and freezing them because the avocado puree and breastmilk have two different thaw points, and they have two different frozen shelf-life times. I found it much more simple to freeze the puree and breastmilk separately, and to just mix them right before serving them to my kids! Hope that helps!
Hi can I mix avocado with fish or chicken soup for toddlers ?
Hi! I don’t know if that would taste good, but if your toddler likes it, and they have already had fish and/or chicken separately and have had no allergic reaction, then I don’t see why not!
Hi, how much breastmilk to mix with the avocado? Please could you provide a guide according to age? Thanks!
Hi Dylise! You can actually mix as much or as little breastmilk with the avocado as you want before feeding it to your baby! It’s all personal preference, it’s not tied to age at all. So basically, if you want a thinner puree, use more breastmilk, if you want it to be thicker in consistency, use less breastmilk. I hope that helps!
Can you mix rice cereal in it or would it be better to leave it plain?
Hi Hannah! I’d recommend leaving it plain, or mixing it with homemade baby oatmeal (as rice cereal really has no nutritional value, and you should only use rice cereal if your pediatrician recommends it over oatmeal due to allergy concerns). Hope that helps!
Hi,
Can I use natural yogurt instead of milk or water to blend with avocado?
Hi Terri! Absolutely! Plain, unsweetened, whole milk yogurt would work just fine! 🙂