Tempeh & Pea Smash Dip
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
- 150 g (5 oz) plain tempeh, no marinade, no added salt
- 120 g (1 cup) frozen garden peas
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 60 g (¼ cup) plain unsweetened full-fat pasteurised yogurt, no added salt or sugar — or an unsweetened, calcium-fortified soy or oat plant yogurt for vegan families (check the base: a nut- or coconut-based one adds a tree-nut allergen that the allergens list above does not cover)
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
- Soft steamed vegetable strips, or thick-cut fingers of toasted low-salt bread, to serve
Method
- 1. Steam the tempeh over simmering water for 12–15 minutes — this softens it and mellows its bitterness. It must be soft enough to squash between thumb and forefinger.
- 2. Add the peas for the last 4 minutes of steaming until they are completely tender.
- 3. Tip everything into a bowl and mash thoroughly with a fork, then blend briefly if you want a smoother texture. Make sure no whole peas remain intact — whole peas are small, round and firm, so always split or smash them.
- 4. Beat in the olive oil, lemon juice, yogurt and parsley until spreadable.
- 5. Serve at room temperature spread thinly on the dippers below — never as a thick mound on a spoon.
How to serve by age
6–8 months
Spread a thin 3–5 mm layer on finger-length dippers 8–9 cm long and roughly two adult fingers wide (3 cm) — soft steamed courgette or sweet potato strips, or thick-cut fingers of toasted low-salt bread. The whole-hand palmar grasp holds the dipper while the exposed end delivers the dip.
9–12 months
Offer the smash in a shallow bowl for self-dipping alongside 1 cm pea-sized pieces of soft steamed vegetable, so your baby can pick each piece up with the pincer grasp between thumb and forefinger and load it themselves.
Paediatric note
Tempeh is fermented, and fermentation partly breaks down the phytates that block mineral absorption, so it delivers its iron and zinc more efficiently than unfermented soy — a genuinely useful food for vegan infants, whose zinc intake is often the harder gap to close. The lemon juice is there for vitamin C; buy plain tempeh, since marinated versions are usually high in sodium. Bread is one of the biggest hidden sources of salt in an infant's diet, so pick the lowest-salt loaf you can find (or use steamed vegetable strips instead) — a baby under 12 months needs less than 1 g of salt a day.
Source guidance: https://www.who.int/health-topics/complementary-feeding
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