ideas for pureed food for an adult please

lessonlearned

My OH has swallowing difficulties and can now only eat pureed food.

He is in a nursing home and although the food is adequate it is a bit bland so any suggestions to spice things up a bit for him.

So far I've done curries, chillis, chicken casseroles, meatballs - basically anything that has a softish texture and a sauce.

He can only manage pureed potatoes, no rice, pasta, noodles etc. No pastry type bases.

All suggestions welcome.

Ninno820

When I had a problem and needed to puree my food I simply cooked a normal meal - lamb shank with potatoes n veg - and added a little water to make it more like a thick broth. Surprisingly one meal did about three "soups" - portion control??

lessonlearned

Thanks for that.

Not tried lamb yet but lamb shanks should be nice and soft to puree.

Unfortunately soupy/broth type of meals are not usually suitable because they are too liquid and he would run the risk of choking and aspiration. All drinks, soups etc have to be thickened and the thickener does tend to spoil the taste of food. So ideally I think we are looking at a fairly thick smooth puree - no lumps or fibres.

I will try lamb shank - it should puree down quite well. I've not tried stewing beef because of the fibres.

Tinwhistler

Wholegrain mustard is quite nice in smooth potato

lessonlearned

Mustard mash (ok puree) - yummy. He would love that. Thanks.

RAS

Hi

Is the exclusion of pasta and rice because of dietary requirements or just because he struggles with the texture?

Any reason you cannot somewhat overcook pasta or rice and puree it as long as the sauce is smooth?

Things like macaroni cheese?

Does he like sweets; chocolate mousse, fruit fools? Get the calories in and some vitamin C?

Can you bake potatoes and mash them as they have a stronger taste?

In addition to European mustard, think other spices. Ground cumin goes well in potato and is a real Indian dish. I like baked potato mashed with parsnip and caraway (Jocasta Innes).

Coriander goes well with anything tomato based, and a bit of ginger and clove boost the flavour.

lessonlearned

Some great ideas there RAS.

Rice pasta etc just seem to cling to the roof of his mouth and he cannot swallow them at all. I've not tried these in the blender because I thought that the starch would just make it all "gloopy". However, I'll give it a go and see how it works.

I've asked if we can try what I call Mashed Fork Consistency because I think that things like macaroni cheese would fall into that category. Soft and easy to slide down but with just a bit of extra texture.

The SALT team will not countenance this because they say "Mashed Fork" would be unsafe. They will not allow carers to feed him anything other than smooth puree, (Baby pap as my OH calls it…….:rotfl:)

The consistency of pureed food is bad enough but the main problem is the lack of taste and this is down to the food on offer. The Nursing Home food is incredibly bland and also very monotonous. The same meals dished up over and over again. That's why I have started supplementing his meals with my own cooking.

So far the curries etc have been a huge hit because even when pureed they still have a bit of "oomph".

He does have a sweet tooth and I have put a mini fridge in his room which I keep stocked up with mousses, fruit fools etc. so there's plenty of scope on the pudding/calorie front. It's the main courses that I need to work on.

Thanks for the ideas.

flea72

Savoury mousse, such as chicken liver, or smoked salmon

Asparagus souffl!, fish pie

lessonlearned

Savoury mousses - yes they sound good.

I've tried him with cod's roe. I think it's disgusting but he loves it, so fish or savoury mousses should work.

Thanks.

RAS

Thanks for the explanation; they seem to go for the lowest common denominator which means that everything interesting is left out.

Rather than commercial sauces have you considered pureeing small amounts of home-made chutneys? These would add savour to the bland diet ( I used real chutneys to survive on hospital food).

Cauliflower cheese? That might blend better.

And have you tried the basic dips like hummus? There are others made from broad beans, peas etc each of which can be spiced up appropriately. More as a starter than main but they would add variety.

whodathunkit

Houmous
Various lentil and pulse combinations as dhal.