No-Cook Sardine & Butter Bean Smash with Avocado Spears
Allergen lists cover the priority allergens in the recipe as written. Always check your own ingredient labels, and introduce each new allergen on its own first.
Ingredients
- 1 tin (120 g / 4¼ oz drained) no-salt-added sardines in spring water or olive oil, drained and rinsed
- 120 g (½ cup) tinned no-salt-added butter beans (lima beans), drained and rinsed thoroughly
- 1 large ripe avocado (it should yield to gentle pressure)
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp (5 ml) lemon juice
- 1 tsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp ground flaxseed (linseed), for rolling
Method
- 1. Tip the drained sardines into a bowl and mash them thoroughly with a fork — the soft backbones should disappear completely into the paste, with no gritty fragments left. Pinch out and discard the tail and any tough skin.
- 2. Add the rinsed butter beans and mash again until smooth and spreadable; press any whole bean skins out between your fingers.
- 3. Stir through the olive oil, lemon juice and parsley. Loosen with a teaspoon of cooled boiled water if the smash is stiff — it should spread, not sit in a lump.
- 4. Halve, stone and peel the avocado, then cut each half lengthwise into spears about 8 cm long and two adult fingers wide, halving them crosswise first if your avocado is very long.
- 5. Spread a thin layer of the smash along each avocado spear and dust the bare end with ground flaxseed so slippery fingers can grip it.
- 6. Serve straight away; keep any leftover smash covered in the fridge and use within 24 hours.
How to serve by age
6–8 months
Cut the avocado into finger-length spears roughly 8 cm long and two adult fingers wide, spread thinly with the smash over the top two thirds and leave the bottom third bare as a handle — this is the shape a whole-hand (palmar) grasp can hold and squeeze without it disappearing into the fist.
9–12 months
Dice the avocado into 1 cm pea-sized cubes and drop pea-sized dollops of the smash beside them on the tray so baby can pick each one up with the pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger); a pre-loaded spoon alongside builds self-feeding skills.
Paediatric note
The soft, fully mashed bones in tinned sardines are one of the few non-dairy sources of well-absorbed calcium and come packaged with DHA and vitamin D. Choose a no-salt-added tin and rinse it, because infants under 12 months should have less than 1 g of salt a day and their kidneys handle a sodium load poorly.
Source guidance: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/
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