Colorful Handmade Flat Noodles 手工蔬菜面条

Baby Claire is starting to get more adventurous with her food nowadays that she always want to eat our food when dining on the same table. As she has 8 teeth now and I can see another 2 more teeth coming out (and how she loves to chew my finger, ouch!), I have been introducing her to more staple food, like bread, Pao, noodles, pasta, cheese crackers, cereal etc, with principle of no or less salt, no sugar, no MSG, no artificial flavoring and no processed food where possible.

When I saw one lady posted a picture of the homemade noodles she made for her daughter on a Facebook group, I was instantly captivated and thought I can make the same for my baby too! Since there is no detail on measurements given, I decided to give it a try by making my own homemade noodles.

Look what I've made here.

Beautiful mixture of spinach noodles (dark green), pumpkin noodles (yellow), tomato noodles (pink) and red cabbage noodles (purple).

My duo absolutely loved their 4-colors noodles in anchovies soup.

Little Ethan had his with shredded cheese. He was so fascinated by the colors that he kept asking me what veggie I used. He went grocery shopping with me and I used this chance to teach him the various type of vegetables.

Baby Claire had hers cut into small bits. she was so fond of her noodles that she kept asking for more, so eventually I top up some from her (which was supposed to be my portion!)

Ready to make some yummy homemade noodles for your little ones? Lets read on.




Preparation Time: 45 min
Cooking Time: 15 min
Serving for: approximately 8 feeding
Recommended Age Group: 1 Year Onward

Ingredients:
1 cup of pumpkin cut into cubes
1 cup of sliced red cabbage
1 large tomatoes, cut into cubes
1 cup of spinach leaves (remove the stems)
4 Cup all purpose floor, plus extra for dusting
1 egg (optional)

Just for reference, I used this measurement cup for 1 cup and 1/2 cup respectively.

Step-by-Step Guides:

Preparing the purée
1. Steam the pumpkin and red cabbage for 15 minutes, blend into purée once cooled (refer to preparation of purée here).

2. Boil the spinach leaves in a pot of hot water for 10 minutes, drain the water and let cool.

I used a steamer pot where I can do step 1 and 2 at the same time.


3. Using a food processor, blend each vegetables until mushy, 1 type at a time, add a little bit of water if the puree is too dry (optional). For tomatoes, they can be blend raw.

The ready purée..

Preparing the dough
4. Dust a clean surface with some flour, put 1 cup of flour, make a well in the middle then add 2 table spoons of purée in the middle.

The ratio should be 1 Cup Flour : 2 table spoons purée. If you want to make lesser amount, just cut down according to the ratio.

For Egg Noodle
You may crack an egg and add into the flour if you like the noodle softer and smoother, you will have to add another 2-3 spoonful of flour to ensure the dough is not too sticky. However, it is not recommended to feed eggs (especially egg white!) to baby under 1 year old due to potential allergy effect.

5. Using your hands, thoroughly mix the flour and purée until you can form a ball. If the texture is too dry, add a bit more purée; if its too sticky, add some floor, one spoon at a time.

6. Start kneading the dough using a rolling pin for about 10 minutes, dust the rolling pin with some flour to avoid sticking. Refer to picture before on the steps to kneading, you need to repeat these steps about 8-10 times.

7. Once the dough is ready, spread it flat to about 1cm thickness and start cutting it into long stripes using a plastic cutter. Alternatively, use a cookies cutter if you want to create more interesting shapes. (I admit I was lazy and was in a rush as I made these whole my baby was having her nap...)

Subsequently I tried making the noodles using pasta maker, it is a lot easier, thinner and better appearance with the equal cuts. Refer here to see the difference.

8. Transfer the raw noodles into a big plate, lie them flat to make sure they do not overlap or they may stick together. Repeat step 4 - 8 for each different noodles that you intend to make.

9. The noodle are ready to be cook fresh right away, or good to store in fridge for up to a week.

You may cook the noodle using your favorite soup base, for elder kids, sprinkle some cheese for added nutrition and taste. Or you may refer to here for some suggested cooking methods.

Bon appetite!

Note: As this is my first time experimenting with noodle making, I made mine too thick. I shall try to improve next round and post updated pictures for comparison :)


No doubt there are quite some steps involved here, but it guarantees freshness and no junk at all for the little ones. Besides, isn't all the colorful noodles such a pleasant feast to the eyes? :)



Useful Tips!
1. You may stick to only 1 type of purée to reduce the preparation time. However personally I like it in multi-coloras it offers beautiful color mixture, had more nutrition and definitely more attractive to little ones too.

2. You may choose to vary the vegetable used depending on what color effect you would want to achieve. As you may have noticed, I prepared the sweet potato purée but did not used it as the color appeared rather dull to me.

3. Remember to cut the noodles into chewable size and cook for slightly longer time when feeding to young babies to avoid risk of chocking.

4. You may prepare the puree and dough ahead of time, store them in fridge and use them for cooking later.

5. Bring the kids along for grocery shopping, let them have a chance to see, touch and learn the vegetables and fruits. My little boy helped me to choose vegetables, weighed them and put them into trolley. Simple tasks but great avenue to teach them general knowledge that they could not have learnt else where.