How to make baby rice cereal at home, porridge for babies

Baby rice cereal recipe and rice porridge for babies – This homemade baby rice cereal is one of the best first foods for babies. It turns out delicious, creamy and smooth as good as the ready made baby cereals and you may stop buying any more after you try this. This cereal can be used not only for babies but also for toddlers up to 3 years during diarrhea, fever or teething.

This baby cereal is suitable as a first food for 6 months old baby. For babies younger than 6 months, i suggest consulting your pediatrician. You can check this food chart for 6 months old baby and this one for above 7 months old.

Rice is a highly recommended first grain for babies since it is easy to digest, non allergic and the smooth texture it yields. The ready made cereals are precooked, dehydrated and then processed. During this process many nutrients are lost – this is one of the reasons why ready made baby cereals are enriched with more nutrients.

Using this recipe, you can make brown rice and white rice cereal separately. Initially use white rice for about a week and then start brown rice by mixing both in equal quantities.

After the baby completes 6 months, dal/lentils can also be prepared the same way. The ratio of rice: dal should be 3:1 for the first week. If the baby is doing good without any colic, then the proportion can be increased to 2:1. If using brown rice , the ratio can be 2:1:1 white rice:brown rice: dal. You can also add few drops of ghee if using dal to make the baby cereal. To introduce ghee and the for quantity to try with, you can check this post on best foods for weight gain in babies.

I suggest using aged organic rice and dal. I have tried using basmathi, ponni, sona masuri, thai hom mali rice for my kids. Hom mali yields a very fragrant baby cereal and its taste is much superior than any other varieties.

Benefits of this dry cereal
1. Not much time is taken to prepare a baby’s meal. If this powder is ready, making baby’s food is a breeze. Since the ingredients are already soaked and roasted they get cooked fast. Just stir it in water and cook. Not much planning is needed.
2. The texture of the cereal is more like the ready made baby cereal – smooth, delicious, tasty, not expensive and more healthy than the ready made cereals.
3. Make one base cereal but can add so many flavors to this. Fruit purees, mashed veggies, milk or leafy greens can also be added.

How to make baby rice cereal at home step by step photos

1. Wash brown, white rice and dal separately until the water runs clear. Soak them in lot of water for about 6 hours. Do not cover the pot, leave them in a well ventilated place, like near a window. This process of soaking rice or dal breaks down the hard to digest components in the foods for easy digestion. This also helps to prevent colic. However if you feel you cannot do the entire process, you may just skip the soaking part. Rinse them well and drain the water.

2. Drain off completely in a colander. Spread them on a clean white cloth, preferable white or undyed cloth. Leave it to air dry or fan dry for 30 to 50 minutes.

3. Dry roast them on a medium flame for 5 minutes and then on a low flame. After a while, rice begins to pop and splutter. The grains turn out very light so the cereal is gentle on the tummy. Switch off and cool.

4. Similarly follow the same process for white rice and dal.

5. When cooled powder them finely and store in a air tight jar. If your blender cannot process well, sieve the flour. Powder the coarse grains again.

Rice porridge recipe for babies

To prepare baby food, always use a heavy bottom steel pot. Do not use aluminium or non stick pans. To prepare the cereal, mix 1 tbsp flour with 1/2 cup water and cook on a low flame constantly stirring to prevent burning. Foods cooked on a low flame yield the best texture and taste. 1:6 ratio of flour:water works well to bring it to the right consistency. You may need to add more water since that depends on the kind of rice. When the cereal cools down, add formula milk or breast milk to enhance the nutrition. For babies above 6 months, moong dal can be used. I suggest not to add milk to dal, instead ghee can be added.

Based on the baby’s tummy conditions, you can combine them and use. Prefer only white rice cereal with milk when the baby has more colic. During stomach upset or teething, this powder can be used to make a rice porridge or kanji. This powder can be used for light dinner as well after 7 months.

Any fruit puree or mashed veggies like potato or sweet potato can also be added to the rice cereal instead of milk. Since fruits and milk do not go well together, i suggest not to serve both in one meal.

There are so many ways this dry baby rice cereal can be put to use. I will update more ideas on this post shortly.

Here are the notes on baby rice cereal that may be useful:
1. I used aged brown basmathi rice and ponni rice, since i made this for the blog post and not for a baby in real. If making for baby i highly recommend using organic rice and dal.
2. I have used 1:6 proportion of brown rice:water to cook the cereal. It may vary depending on the stove flame, quality of rice, brand of rice and whether it is brown or white rice. You will have to adjust the quantity of water as needed especially if making very less quantity.
3. This dry cereal keeps good if refrigerated for more than an year and if frozen for longer.

How to make baby rice cereal at home (porridge for babies)

baby rice cereal, porridge for babies.

Prep Time6 minutes

Cook Time30 minutes

Total Time36 minutes

Servings1 cup

AuthorSwasthi

Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )

• 1 cup rice (prefer organic)
• Water to wash the rice

How to make the recipe

• Please follow the instructions mentioned above in the post.

NUTRITION (estimation only)

Calories: 675kcal | Carbohydrates: 147g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 1g | Sodium: 9mg | Potassium: 212mg | Fiber: 2g | Calcium: 52mg | Iron: 1.5mg

If you are a beginner or new to Indian cooking, I highly suggest you to check the supporting step by step photos for best results. Step by step photos with description available below after the recipe card.