
Let’s look into some insights before starting with this recipe, dalia for babies. I started off Devansh on solids with fruits. First I gave him a mashed banana, then after 4-5 days, I gave him pureed papaya. I gave him fruits for the first two weeks. Then, I added moong daal khichdi to his diet. As he got used to eating khichdi, I started giving him dalia khichdi. So you can say he started eating dalia, when he was around seven months old. Initially, I did not add vegetables, jeera powder, and chili powder to the dalia—just plain dalia with haldi, hing, and salt. Gradually I started adding the veggies to this simple and easy to cook dalia recipe.
Buy Organic Dalia
After Devansh turned one, I started adding just a hint of chili powder to dalia. Gradually I went on increasing the amount. Now I add about a pinch of chili powder to his dalia. The recipe given below is suitable for babies 1 year and older. Some of the benefits of feeding dalia to babies is that it introduces the baby to new textures and flavors of food. Apart from that it also provides babies with a lot of energy.
You can leave out the optional ingredients if you want to make dalia for 6-7 month old babies. One simply cannot leave dalia out when it comes to making healthy food choices for a baby.
How to make dalia for babies?

Dalia for Babies
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp yellow moong daal / split yellow gram
- 2 tbsp dalia, broken wheat (We usually don’t wash dalia before using it for cooking. Therefore, I prefer to use organic dalia.)
- 1 pinch hing / asafoetida
- 1 pinch haldi / turmeric powder
- 1/4 tbsp jeera / cumin seeds powder
- 2 tbsp homemade ghee / clarified butter
- 1 pinch red chili powder (optional)
- salt to taste
- 3 tbsp mashed vegetables (optional)
- 1 tbsp pureed spinach (optional)
Instructions
- Wash moong daal properly and allow it to dry. I usually make the mixture of moong daal and dalia to last me for a week. So I take about a cupful of moong daal for roasting.
- Roast moong daal and dalia in a pan separately while stirring them continuously. This time will depend on the quantity of the mixture. 5-10 minutes is enough for 2 tbsp of daal and dalia. You will need to roast moong daal for a bit longer than dalia.
- If your baby has just been introduced to solids, you can grind the roasted mixture coarsely in a blender.
- You need 4 tbsp of the roasted mixture for one serving of dalia. You can store the remaining mixture in an airtight container for future use.
- Add hing, haldi, jeera powder, and salt to the roasted mixture. (Note: It is recommended to avoid adding salt in babies’ food till they turn one. However, in my case I found that Devansh just wouldn’t eat his food without salt. Hence, I started adding little bit of salt in his food. You can decide whether you want to add salt or not after talking to your child’s pediatrician.)
- Add a pinch of red chili powder if you want to get your baby started on spicy food. Only you as a mother can be the best judge of when you should start giving your child spicy food. But I’d say wait till the child is at least 10 months old.
- Add 1 and a half cup of water to the mixture.
- Cook the mixture in a pressure cooker on medium flame for about 15-20 minutes (8-9 whistles).
- Mash cooked dalia finely or coarsely depending on your baby’s age.
- Add some homemade ghee to the dalia before serving it to your baby.
Notes
Should you add vegetables to dalia meant for babies?
Yes, you can. If you want to add vegetables to dalia:- Follow steps 1-9 as listed above.
- Then, heat a pan and add 1 tbsp of homemade ghee to it.
- Add about 1/4th tsp of jeera powder to the ghee. (For older kids you can use cumin seeds instead of the powder.)
- Add mashed vegetables and pureed spinach. Make sure that the spinach is cooked for at least 5 minutes before it is pureed or your child may find it difficult to digest.
- Stir the vegetables for about half a minute.
- Add cooked dalia and stir well before turning off heat.
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Thanks so much Asha :)
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Thank you so much :-)
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Good recipes, I am going to try a few and will let you know if my 3 year old fussy eater likes them! Fingers crossed!
Beejal
Thanks Beejal and all the best :)
Thanks for this recipe..my daughter ate this well (which is rare fo her ) :)
So glad to hear that…nothing gives more joy than knowing your child's had a good meal na? :)
Great great great recipes!! My little one just turned 7 months.. do you gave a sample feeding schedule in any of your blogs? I feel so confused on what to feed .. will appreciate any ideas ! Thanks !
Hi Kiranpreet,
I haven't put up the schedule. Quite a few moms asked me to share my schedule but I can't find the chart Deansh's paed had given me. I remember I used to give him four meals a day. The paed had suggested 5 meals, starting at 7 AM and ending at 11 PM, with 4 hours gap between two meals. First meal at 7 Am I used to find difficult as Devansh used to sleep very late around 3-4 AM when he was your LO's age.
I used to give him more BFs than what was given in the chart though, around 5-6 in a day so that kind of made up for the one less meal. Give your LO food that'll cover all food groups: grains, veggies/fruits, fats, and proteins. Dairy I introduced in Devansh's diet after one.
For b'fast you can give your LO: Mashed banana, sweet potato, ragi, poha, or oats porridge (cooked in water not milk, you can add BM or formula to the cooked porridge), upma (you can add mashed veggies to upma)
For lunch you can give dalia, dal-rice, khichdi. Some people don't recommend giving wheat to babies early. It was one of the suggested foods in the chart I got, so I had given and Devansh was able to digest it alright.
For evening snack, you can given mashed fruit like apple, pear, soup of your choice (check soup recipes on my blog), pureed carrots, peas.
For dinner again khichdi, dal-rice variation. Figure out what your LO likes and give that to him/her as dinner because dinner should be heavy if you want your LO to sleep properly.
Along with these meals, you'll need to continue giving your LO BM or formula till one year. Four meals were enough for Devansh as his weight was fine. You may need to give an extra meal to your LO as each baby is different. Customize as per your LO's requirement. :)
MANY MANY THANKS ! Very helpful suggestions ..thanks for your time in writing it up .. keep sharing the yummy recipes :) :) I must say Devansh is blessed with a taleneted mom ..Nice name – Devansh ! Take care !
Thanks :)
supperb maam i just love your dishes and my bbby too.
Thanks Neeta and please call me Mukta. :)
We should thank u for the excellent recipe’s …..I just kept wondering what to feed my little one and this is like a life saver….loved the multiple options n I’m going to try them…. U have even made it easier by sharing ur experience….. Thank u…
Thanks for appreciating the effort Tejaswini. I spent a lot of time in front of the computer collating recipes from different sites or asking relatives/friends for recipes. That’s when my hubby suggested why not share these recipes on a blog…there weren’t too many Indian baby food-related blogs then. :) Let me know how your LO likes these dishes.
Hi dear I am so happy to see ur websites the dishes but I am sad too cause what ever I cook for my baby he is not eating properly just little or just throw out everything from his mouth and his wait is fine but seems to be very thin before he was eating at least half what I use to cook but now may be cause of teething he is not eating no idea what to do spoken to Dr he is saying baby is active more important ut as a mom u also know how mommies plz help me dear plz help
Hello.. Very Nice recepies….. Please tell more dishes for 11 month old baby….
Thanks Priya take a look at the recipes at these two links:
https://mummumtime.com/category/baby-food-recipes/
https://mummumtime.com/category/toddler-food-recipes/
You may need to adapt the toddler food recipes for your baby keeping in mind her developmental stage….less spicy, no salt, powdered cumin seeds instead of whole etc.
Love to your baby. :)
Nice.I follow your recipes for my 18 months old son.can we add fenugreek leaves?
Archana you can pretty much give whatever you all eat to your 1.5 year old baby. You just need to go easy on the spices. You can add moong daal to the fenugreek sabzi as it’s easy to digest and the combination tastes good. Some kids take time to chew food properly so your son might find it irritating to get leaves in his bites, my son at that age did. So chop them up real fine.
Hi! Why roasting moong dal and not soaking it? TIA
Hi Peggy. In khichdis, pulao etc we roast the rice, lentils like moong dal before cooking it as it gives a nice flavor to the dish and adds a bite otherwise the grains don’t hold shape. I’ve followed the same principle in dalia.
Thank u so much mam
Please call me Mukta. :)
Hi mam , my baby is just 11munths old . His weight is 8kg . I m worried about his weight . plz suggest me what type of food he eat perfectly. He eat only white rice and breastfeeding.
Sorry for the delay in replying. Hope you baby is eating well now. Make sure to include vegetables, fruits, daals and healthy grains like millet in his diet. If the doctor is OK with his weight and your baby is active don’t stress too much about the weight. Instead focus on overall nutrition. Foods like banana and eggs are good for weight gain, provided the child can digest heavy food. Cooking baby’s food in homemade ghee also will help add good fats in diet.
Hi
I am so glad to stumble onto your blog. I want to try this recipe and wanted to know if it is necessary to dry roast the moong dal? Can I just add washed and dried moong dal?
Dry roasting lentils makes them easy for digestion. Also roasting it gives a nice aroma. In fact when I make moong daal khichdi for us grownups also I tend to roast the grains a bit in ghee briefly before adding water. However, monng daal is pretty light for digestion so if your baby isn’t too small you can try adding moong daal without roasting and see if the taste works for you.
can I give Daliya to my 9 months old baby daily
If your baby can digest wheat nicely you can. Use organic dalia if you can and add different veggies like carrots (mashed) to it to up the nutritional value.