Pureed foods are raw or cooked vegetables or fruits that are blended and processed into a thick, smooth puree, often created by using a little water and added seasonings. Pumpkin is a common pureed food that is often canned and available in baking aisles at grocery stores, and is popular for making pumpkin pie. Mashed fruits, like apples or pears, are sweet purees often used on their own as a dessert or as an addition in recipes to replace fat or other ingredients. Cooked cauliflower can often be pureed to create a mashed vegetable that is similar to mashed or pureed potatoes.
Most pureed foods, whether commercially produced or made at home, are mainly cooked or raw fruits and vegetables blended together with a little water until a desired consistency is reached. One of the most common types of commercially prepared — and homemade — vegetable puree is pumpkin, often used for pumpkin pie. After baking a raw pumpkin, the flesh inside the vegetable can be scooped out and placed in a blender or food processor with a little water. By blending these two ingredients together, a pureed food is created that can easily be added to any recipe calling for canned pumpkin or pumpkin puree.
A couple of other popular pureed foods are applesauce and pear sauce, which are basically raw fruits blended with a little water and sugar to create a sweet puree. Most pureed foods that use fruits will add seasonings like cinnamon, sugar and salt, creating a dessert type of food puree. These pureed foods can also be made without these ingredients and are very common in baby foods for being palatable and easily consumed. Applesauce is a pureed food that is often added to baking recipes to replace the fat or oil, resulting in more a cake-like product with fewer calories.
Other cooked, pureed foods include cauliflower or broccoli, and often replace mashed potatoes for those on low carbohydrate diets. Cooked cauliflower is blended with butter, salt and other seasonings and blended until a desired consistency is reached. Although cooked foods are easier to puree than raw vegetables or fruits, some foods can be pureed easily if they are soft and contain a large amount of water. Examples of raw pureed foods include pureed beets, bananas and prunes, ingredients that are often consumed on their own or added to recipes.