Baby Nosh: Plant-Based, Gluten-Free Goodness for Baby’s Food Sensitivities is just what it says it is.  This is a beautiful hardcover book and useful beyond just baby food.

The first section is background information.  It talks about allergies, sensitivities, commonly allergenic foods, dietary needs of babies, food quality, etc.  I have mixed feelings about this section.  The information about allergies and sensitivities is accurate.  The notes about food quality are pretty much spot-on.  However, I’m not as much of a fan of the “it’s weird that humans drink other animals’ milk”-type language, and I disagree that babies need notable amounts of solid food starting at 6 months.  The noted iron is present in adequate amounts in small tastes if the right foods (mostly not present here, since this is a mostly-vegan cookbook) are introduced first.  Still, those are rather minor complaints.

Although the book is vegan (mostly; there are a few recipes that contain eggs, and one with goat cheese) and I’m not a proponent of veganism, it also happens to be gluten-free, dairy-free, and top-allergen-free, which is useful even for omnivores like me.  This is a highly practical book, and its real strength is in the recipes.

The recipes are divided into the following sections: foundation foods (basically introductory baby foods/purees), breakfast, lunch & dinner, smoothies & juices, food on the run, dips & spreads, sweet somethings, and natural remedies.  (Surprisingly, the entirety of that last category is, pretty much, foods and beverages.)

The amazing thing about these recipes is that they’re all beautiful and appealing, kid-friendly, real-food recipes — but they’re not just for babies.  Well, older kids and grownups might not be huge fans of the foundation foods (although, to be honest, a lot of those look pretty tasty, too!), but the rest of the recipes look delicious.  (Except kale chips.  I was brave and tried making kale chips once.  They were so disgusting I threw them away.)

Note that if you must be egg-free, you can probably substitute Aquafaba for the eggs in some of the recipes, particularly the Pavlova Birthday Cake.  Probably not so much the frittata.

I’m actually looking forward to trying a lot of these recipes for myself, and appreciate how appealing the authors have made allergen-free foods.