The step up from purée. Soft enough to be safe, lumpy enough to teach a mouth what to do — with iron, calcium and a spoonful of ground flaxseed stirred through.
Short, because there is nothing in it to make it last longer.
No added salt.
The flaxseed must be ground, never whole. Whole seeds are both a choking risk and largely indigestible — they pass straight through.
Mash rather than blend. At seven months the small soft lumps are the entire point, but they must genuinely crush between your finger and thumb with no effort before you serve it.
Always stay with your baby while they eat.
Peel the butternut squash, scrape out the seeds, and cut the flesh into 2cm chunks.
Put the squash into a pan with just enough unsalted water to cover, bring to the boil and simmer for about 12 minutes.
Add the broccoli florets to the same pan for the last 8 minutes, until they are very soft — considerably softer than you would want them yourself.
Drain well, keeping back a few tablespoons of the cooking water.
Return everything to the dry pan and add the drained chickpeas and the olive oil.
Mash with a fork or a potato masher. Stop while there is still a little texture — this is the stage at which a baby learns to manage a soft lump, and that skill has its own developmental window.
Stir in the ground flaxseed last, off the heat, and loosen with the reserved cooking water if needed.
Cool until barely warm before serving.
| Nutrient | Per serving | Of what a 7–9 month old needs |
|---|---|---|
| 🥕 Vitamin A | 283 µg | 81% of daily need |
| ☀️ Vitamin D | 0.00 µg | 0% of daily need |
| 🧬 Vitamin B12 | 0.00 µg | 0% of daily need |
| 🌱 Folate | 36.4 µg | 73% of daily need |
| ⚙️ Thiamin (B1) | 0.12 mg | 59% of daily need |
| ⚙️ Riboflavin (B2) | 0.04 mg | 9% of daily need |
| ⚙️ Niacin equivalents * | 1.13 mg | 28% of daily need |
| ⚙️ Vitamin B6 | 0.18 mg | 61% of daily need |
| 🪨 Magnesium | 33.0 mg | 44% of daily need |
| 🍌 Potassium | 293 mg | 42% of daily need |
| 🧠 Iodine * | 0.56 µg | 1% of daily need |
| 🛡️ Selenium * | 7.59 µg | 76% of daily need |
| 🪙 Copper | 0.12 mg | 39% of daily need |
| 🦴 Phosphorus | 67.7 mg | 17% of daily need |
| 🧂 Salt | 0.01 g | 1% of daily need |
Percentages are measured against UK dietary reference values for this age
group — Public Health England's Government Dietary Recommendations
for ages one and over, and COMA 1991 for infants. They are not adult figures.
Where boys and girls differ, both are shown.
* Not every ingredient in this recipe has a
measured value for that nutrient, so the true amount is likely to be
higher than shown. We would rather say so than quietly round down.
A recipe is one meal, not a day. These figures show what this dish
contributes, not whether a child is getting enough overall.
This is the recipe where texture becomes the point. Babies kept on completely smooth purée for too long can find lumps genuinely difficult later on, and the window for learning it comfortably does not stay open indefinitely. Soft lumps at seven months are a developmental step, not a risk to be engineered out.
Nutritionally it does three jobs at once. Chickpeas bring iron and plant protein. Broccoli brings calcium in a form that is unusually well absorbed, along with vitamin C — which is exactly what the iron in the chickpeas needs alongside it. Butternut squash carries beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A.
One honest note on the flaxseed. It provides ALA, the plant form of omega-3, and ALA is genuinely useful. But the long-chain omega-3 that builds brain and retinal tissue directly is DHA, and the body converts ALA to DHA at a poor rate — commonly quoted at somewhere between 5 and 10%. On a diet without oily fish, an algae-derived DHA supplement is the reliable way to cover it. This recipe helps. It does not pretend to settle the question.
Every recipe in The Grow Well Kitchen is built to this standard. Not as a marketing position — simply because none of it needs to be there.