quinoa/millet flake porridge, how do you get a smooth texture for baby?

[alibo]

Is Pidge, or anyone else out there experienced at making millet or quinoa porridge? Found some organic porridge flakes in tesco's "free from" range. They contain rice flakes, millet flakes and agar. Tried to make up a small amount this morning using formula milk in microwave, but ended up with a lumpy mess!! Think I will need to whizz the flakes in a blender to get a finer texture, the lumps were huge and ds would have choked had I give it him!! When making a small amount of quinoa porridge do you use the flakes as they are, or would you get a smoother porridge if the flakes were ground up first? Most websites on quinoa suggest rinsing the flakes in water first to get rid of any excess saponin that causes bitterness, is this necessary?

I don't know about rinsing the flakes but whenever I've made quinoa for dd, I've cooked it first, then just whizzed it in the blender afterwards, with some fruit too, to make it nice and smooth.

I make millet flake porridge for ds and I grind the flakes to a powder first in a coffee grinder. It doesn't go lumpy that way. I use about 5floz milk to 1.5 tbspns millet powder and cook it for about 10mins. Only tried quinoa once and it did taste bitter so I'll try rinsing it next time.

have ground up the porridge flakes in blender, so that it is as powdered as it will go.However,when cooked with the formula, despite being a fairly smooth, runny consistency, you can still feel the texture of tiny little lumps,which ds is gagging on. Sure it isn't the taste he doesn't like as I am putting loads of pear in which he has with baby rice in the evening. Is ther any way I can get it smmother and lump free??

Sorry, that should be smoother

I didn't know about rinsing the flakes, but I always foudn that whizzing grains before they were cooked tended to make the porridge more bitter than whizzing after cooking, yet wizzing before gave a less gooey texture. The bitterness is easily hidden by putting in some wizzed fruit.

To make smooth porridge out of what is basically flour, I would mix the 'flour' with water or milk at approx 1:3 ratio, and cook it in a ramekin in a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally. It always came out lumpy if I cooked it in a pan directly on the hob.

I bought the quinoa grains from a health store and then found some info online. It said that there are saponins on the grain which are biter tasting, to deter birds. Aparently if you rinse the grains under the tap for 2 minutes, in a sieve they are fine. So I did that and they were really pleasant tasting. I blended them and they are a gooey, but still retain a texture. Pog liked it with apricot.