The Chia Challenge!

[Harmony]

I'm putting this in here as I'll be working with all gluten free ingredients, but if you're not GF, feel free to join in with non-GF ingredients as well.

I have been investigating some more nutritious GF flour options, especially ones I can buy in grain/seed form and mill myself in the  , of course  I have come up with 3 in particular - Chia, Amaranth and Quinoa.

Chia http://www.thechiaco.com.au/index.php?id=1

Amaranth http://www.ripeorganics.com.au/wholefoods-glossary/grains-legumes/amaranth

Quinoa http://www.organicsaustraliaonline.com.au/category466_1.htm

Anyone interested in joining me in some new cooking adventures? I'm hoping to come up with a grain blend, some combination of the above with rice and maybe corn (if I can get it dried, or maybe I need to dehydrate my own?) to chuck into the TM any time I want to bake. I love my cakes and muffins and biscuits, if I can make them better for me, so much the better!

Ordering my Chia now...

[Harmony]

Aha! I found all 3 ingredients in one online store:

www.biomedcafe.com.au

Postage a bit pricey 

[brazen20au]

i nearly bought chia the other day but had no idea what to do with it lol

i did buy amaranth though i didn't get more quinoa as we weren't that keen on it - it tastes a bit bitter for us

[Thermomixer]

Was the quinoa in date.  It may have been a bit rancid.  May pay to get some from another supplier.  It is very useful and shouldn't be bitter.

[brazen20au]

i read online that it can be slightly bitter but perhaps we all got a bad batch

anyway i forgot to say that i am definitely up for some new ideas and challenges, but will need some help

[Thermomixer]

It is generally prepared so that the bitter effects should have gone before packaging.

If you soak it and rinse it then there shouldn't be any bitterness.  Did the little rings pop out?

Try making salads like you would a fruity rice salad.  That's my favourite way.

[brazen20au]

i don't remember but i probably didn't rinse it. it did have the rings. i used it in tabbouli

[Galadia]

I'm interested to know what people end up doing with the chia seed. I have some white and black in my pantry, but am not really sure what to do with it other than sprinkle it on my cereal and use every now and then in small amounts in baking.

The package says it goes into a gel if you mix a tablespoon in water; hasn't happened for me yet. Do you have to heat it, I wonder? I left it soaking overnight but no gel like I would get when soaking psyllium.

[Thermomixer]

Hi Galadia 

Great to hear from you.    I have not used chia, but will check it out.   

[brazen20au]

the amaranth does go very gel like  makes a very solid gooey tabouleh! lol

[Harmony]

Sorry for my long absence, it's been a bit nuts around here!

Chia gel - follow the instructions on the packet for making the gel (or did I get them online?), just put it in the TM, mix, stand for the 20 mins, mix again to separate the clumps, then pop in the fridge. Worked perfectly for me the first time.

I've had a disaster with the chia - I put a couple of tablespoons of the gel in a batch of butternut cookies (and left the dough for ages as I got interrupted) and wound up with big soft puffy biscuits instead of hard chewy cookies  ) They were still yummy but my girls wouldn't eat them.

I also tried some amaranth and quinoa milled and put into pikelets the other day - put in faaaaar too much and they tasted so bad I had to spit my first bite out  Been a long time since I made that bad a cooking disaster  I looked at some pasta and discovered 10% is about right, I'd put in between half and a third!

However, a couple of tablespoons in my GF Laucke easybakers breadmix makes a HUGE improvement to the bread, it has fewer air bubbles, more elastic, stays fresher longer and tastes great!

Baby crying, back later

[greenie]

oooohhhhh!!!  I am so excited to find this thread!  hooray!  I love Chia and quinoa.  I find most of the thermomiz recipes a bit too heavy on wheat and dairy for me, so and thrilled to be able to swap recipes here with others using other grains and ingredients!

Chia gel - if you soak 1Tblspn with 1/2 cup water or juice for at least 20 mins (2 hrs is better - soak in fridge) it will form a gel.  Soaked in apple juice it is delicious just on it's own - use as a topping for fruit salad or on cereal (or I just eat spoonfuls of it!).  Soaking makes a lot more of the nutrients bioavailable

I just got a few kgs of chia from this website  - http://www.rawpower.com.au/pdf-recipebook.html?hop=95037t - they have it on special at the moment for $22.50/kg pluss 9.95 flat postage.  It still works out cheaper than buying small packets in wholefood store here.  5 of us ordered together to reduce the postage cost.

Quinoa - shouldn't taste bitter.  Try soaking overnight with a tspn lemon juice.  This will also make it much easier to digest (although it's already much easier than wheat) and also make it quicker to cook (will only take about mins!). 

I use quinoa to make tabouleh as well and also a few salads, adapted from other recipes - will post soon.  They are not really TM recipes though... but still quick and easy.

happy cooking

[brazen20au]

i dsocvered you're supposed to rinse quinoa really well before cooking so i'm enjoying it now

i bought some chia the other day and i'm going to use it in the GF bread as another seed.

i bought roasted buckwheat to use in my tabbouleh instead of quinoa, they use it in the vegan store near my old work and it was very yummy, nicer than the quinoa

[greenie]

Oh, that's great news about the quinoa   

You can also sprout buckwheat and use it raw in tabouleh - it's really nice.  You just soak overnight, then put it into a couple of jars or a sprouter for another 24hrs, rinsing a couple of times during the day.  The soaking and sprouting makes the buckwheat just as soft as if you've cooked it, and it's still full of enzymes and all the nutrients completely intact.  Everyone I make it for loves it and are surprised when I tell them it's raw.

I have raw buckwheat for my breakfast everyday.  I love it!

I haven't perfected the GF bread yet - is pretty heavy and, well.... blobby... any tips?

[brazen20au]

does the buckwheat taste like sprouts then though (eg: alfalfa, snowpea) i hate sprouts! lol

the bread is reasonably heavy. certainly heavier than this one which is also very nice in a totally different way http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/2009/01/gluten-free-rice-bread-gf-tmx.html