The best baby food processors to help you make delicious, home-cooked food for your baby without the fuss
Weaning is such an incredibly exciting time – but it can also be a little daunting, as you make food to try to tempt the most delicate of palates – your baby’s!
Whether you are trying spoon fed weaning or baby-led weaning, you will need to prepare food that’s soft enough for your baby to eat – and that’s where a baby food processor can come in handy.
We take a look at the best baby food processors to show you what’s useful and what’s good to have.
We have a helpful feature that you can read here to give you some advice as to whether you need a baby food processor.
BEABA Baby Cook Solo 6-in-1 Baby Food Maker
£109.90
Coming in dark and light grey or white to suit your kitchen, this is a cooker with several functions. It has a generous bowl so that you can bulk cook your baby’s food ready for the fridge or freezer and it’s quite a compact machine, so it can be slipped into a cabinet when you’re not using it – yet is nice enough to leave on view. It can cook your food swiftly and once cooked, it can mix, chop or purée the contents depending on what weaning stage your baby is at. You can also use it to thaw or reheat previously cooked food, meaning it’s all you need for the weaning months. Cooking takes less than 20 minutes and uses steam, so it preserves the nutritional content of the food. It turns itself off when it’s done, for safety.
Babymoov Nutribaby Plus 6-in-1 Baby Food Maker
£159.99
This is a larger piece of kit than many baby food processors and it has more functions than some, so you should weigh up if you use all of them. It has a large capacity across several bowls, allowing you to cook more than one thing at the same time and to bulk cook. Broccoli alongside carrots? No problem. It steams food quickly, keeping the vitamins intact and you can also blend to one of three textures, from smooth to chunky. The cooking liquid is retained, meaning you can use it to make your purées thinner while still keeping all the goodness. It will also sterilise items for you, as well as defrosting and heating up both baby food jars and milk bottles. It’s almost worth investing in this from your baby’s birth if you’re going to be bottle feeding. It’s fairly easy to clean and using it is simple with its front-mounted display panel.
Baby Brezza Deluxe One Step Food Maker
£175
The best thing about this unit is its ability to steam and blend your baby’s homemade food in just one simple step. It has three settings for the texture of your food; puréed, mashed or chunky and the one-push button makes it simple to use. It has several useful functions, as it defrosts, warms, steams, blends and cooks and you do not need to take the food out of the bowl between steps. It’s suitable for all weaning phases and different types of food. The bowl is quite large at 1.85 litres and the display is brightly lit and easy to use. You can cook everything from fruits and vegetables to fish and meat. It will even cook pasta and rice, as well as boil eggs. It has an automatic shut-off and an easy-to-access water tank.
Philips Avent 4-in-1 Healthy Baby Food Maker
£140
An all-in-one design with no separate bowls for different foods makes this a simple and streamlined machine. Inside the bowl you can steam, blend, defrost and reheat food, so you have less washing up. It is small and neat and can easily sit on a counter or be popped inside a cupboard when not in use. It’s a sturdy and reliable unit and is easy to clean. It can be set to a timer and then turns itself off when it’s done, meaning you have peace of mind if you get involved doing other things with your baby.
Tommee Tippee Quick Cook 6-in-1 Baby Food Maker
£149.99
This is another machine with six functions and what’s best about it is that you can go from one function to another without any fuss or the need to tip the food out first. The functions are: steam, chop, blend, defrost, reheat and sterilise. Its design is rather like a coffee maker, so it looks at home in the kitchen and it has a handy, grabbable handle to pull the jar from the machine. It may be more useful for those who are in the early weaning stages, as it makes great purée but it may be less useful for those who want a machine to progress beyond that.
Nutribullet Baby Food Blender
£69.99
If you’re a fan of the NutriBullet for your juices and smoothies, you’ll be delighted that there’s a baby version, too. Simple to use, it just requires you to add your ingredients to the jug and then blitz it on the base. Six cute storage cups with face designs and a base to put them in are included to store your baby’s food in, and they even have dials so that you can log the date you made the food. The thickness of the purée can be changed from smooth to larger chunks as your baby grows. It comes with two different sized bowls to place on the blender, so you can make a small amount or batch cook for several meals. It has a powerful blade and you can even use it to mill grains into fine cereals.
Tommee Tippee Quick Chop Mini Electric Baby Food Blender and Chopper
£29.99
This uses a simple one-touch button that’s handily on the top of the processor and it helps you choose the texture of your baby’s food, from puréed to chunky – just press for a shorter or longer time. The unit is BPA-free and has a thick glass bowl that prevents stains and scratches and won’t retain stains or absorb food smells. The bowl, stainless steel blades and silicone base are easy to clean and the parts are dishwasher-safe, too. The non-slip silicone base keeps it stable on your counter top and it can be removed for cleaning. Sadly, you can’t use this for hard ingredients such as ice, coffee beans and spices, nor can you use it for hot liquids. The button can’t be pressed for more than 30 seconds at a time or it may overheat. It has drawbacks, sure, but the price of this machine is good if you just want to use it occasionally.
The following are not necessarily for weaning but can work just as well and may have a longer lifespan in your kitchen, too.
Russell Hobbss Mini Electric Chopper
£14.99
If you are a little wary of spending money on a unit that will only be used for a few months, why not think about a mini food processor. These can be used for several things after your baby has been weaned, from sauces to chopping garlic, chilli, ginger, nuts and herbs and for creating dips, salsa and chimichurri. It can also be used if you just need to mix or chop a small amount of ingredients, such as for a topping or crumble. It holds 500ml and has a simple one-button control. It’s dishwasher safe and is ideal for making small batches of baby food and even houmous!
Ninja Express Chop Mini Herb & Vegetable Chopper
£29
Another machine that’s not specifically for babies but will be used in your kitchen for years to come. It’s a miniature machine that can be used for chopping, mincing and blending and it has a powerful motor and strong blades. It offers a 0.5 litre bowl and has dishwasher-safe parts, It also comes with some handy storage cups.
Nutribullet Blender 900 Series
£89
If you have been thinking of investing in a Nutribullet and have put it off, perhaps this is the best time to buy one and use it for your baby’s food too. This will offer a much longer lifespan than the baby version, though you may prefer a dedicated unit. This powerful unit can blend ice, seeds, nuts and more with your smoothie ingredients and you can also place raw or cooked fruit and vegetable in it to offer your baby.
OXO Good Grips Kitchen Chopper
£20.80
A bit of a wildcard, as this needs no electricity, so if you are saving on power or you often go camping or to festivals, this is ideal for creating delicious weaning meals on the go. It can cope with onions, celery, and carrots when you’re making mirepoix and you can also use it for a quick salsa or guacamole. It has a sharp, stainless steel blade that rotates each time you press the knob, and it dices and chops in even pieces. It comes apart for easy cleaning and is dishwasher safe.