Eating Healthier in Today's World

Heart-Healthy Super Grains

February is Heart Healthy Month and I thought I feel that we could help our readers improve their heart health by adding more of the whole grains to their families' diet to help their hearts work more efficiently and live longer.  People who consume more whole grains have been shown to be less likely to develop insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), and cardiovascular disease (CVD). By contrast, people who consume more refined grains appear more likely to develop these diseases.  Basically this means that More Whole Grains = Less Heart Disease.  The general consensus is that the more refined grains that have had the bran and germ removed, have many times less of the essential vitamins and minerals needed to sustain a healthy heart. 

What is really important about adding grains to our diets is the availability of so many different kinds of grains (over 30 different kinds)  that we can now acquire and the variety of ways they can be used. There are grains for Gluten Free diets as well as many other kinds with different textures, flavours, and colours. Think about it!  You can cook them cereal either whole, cracked or flaked (we do that with our Roller Mills), they can be used in salads this way as well, they can be sprouted and used again in salads or sandwiches or even added to the bread in the sandwich, they can be milled into flour, we use our Nutrimill (which will mill any grain or legume) and used in all your cooking and baking whether you are making apple pies, pancakes, or thickening a soup or sauce.  What I thought I would do is talk about 3 of the different kinds of grains and how to use them in various recipes. 

QUINOA - One of my favorite grains to use is Quinoa.  I like it for it's delicate texture and taste when we cook it as well as for it's great versatility.  It is also one of the Gluten Free Super Grains with lots of great vitamins and minerals essential for good health,  Developed in South America dating back to 3000 BC, it was a vital part of the Andean diet for the natives of that area.  Quinoa is the most complete food and can be substituted for protein rich foods such as cheese or beef.  It is considered to have more than 3 times the calcium and twice as much phosphorus as wheat for example.  The White Quinoa is the most common of the Super grains as it has been in North America the longest.  I like to cook it mixed in with rice to sneak some extra nutrition into the end product.  It is also amazing in soups, salads, or even as a side dish on its own possible cooked with chicken stock instead of water.  Black quinoa is also now available and it has a wonderful texture and gives a colour contrast to your dish,  whether it is  casserole or a salad,  Red Quinoa is the newest of the Quinoa (Keen-wah) family with it's unique nutty flavour and pleasant texture.  This makes a wonderful breakfast cereal combined with fresh fruit and non-fat milk or even Greek yogurt.  You also can mill any of the Quinoas in the grainmill, to make pancakes or muffins or even add it to bread, for either regular or Gluten Free.  I like to mix it whole with other cracked grains for a nice crunch to a Multi-grain Bread.  By the way, the whiter the White Quinoa, the less bitter it is, so look for creamy white colour in the grain and you won't have to wash it much before using it. 

My Favorite Quinoa Salad                         Click here for printable recipe

• 1  cup Quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• 1 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1 cup dried cranberries (you can soak them)
• 2 English cucumbers, diced
• 1/2 cup flat parsley chopped fine
• 4 oz. feta cheese

Dressing: 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/3 cup oil oil, salt and pepper to taste. 

 Cook Quinoa in water and once it is cooled add nuts, cranberries, cucumbers, parsley and feta cheese.  Using the Bamix stick blender, mix lemon juice and olive oil with salt and pepper and pour over salad and combine well.  Serve immediately.

BUCKWHEAT/KASHA -  Another one of my favorite grains is the really different looking kind of pyramid-shaped buckwheat.  The proteins in buckwheat are one of the best known sources of complex carbohydrates.  Buckwheat also contains one of the highest proportions of amino acids, which the body doesn't manufacture but is absolutely essential for good health.  Buckwheat is really not a wheat but more of a cousin to the rhubarb plant.  The flour is kind of grey in colour but has a wonderful flavour and makes pancakes and waffles come to life.  The rustic flavour is also great to add to pizza dough and French breads.  You can get buckwheat is several forms---the whole buckwheat which is black in colour and is best used for milling into flour.  It does not have any gluten so it can't be used to make bread on it's own, however our gluten free customers love it in muffins and cookies.  The second form is the hulled buckwheat or kasha.  This buckwheat is used mostly cooked or steamed and used as a side dish or in salads.  It has a mild but wonderful flavour and I would even recommend it in casseroles replacing rice.  The third kind is the roasted buckwheat or kasha that has a very strong, earthy flavour and is also great in side dishes and salads.  This a great grain to experiment with and whatever way you choose to use it, I am sure you will love the flavour and also receive the high level of nutrition from this different grain.

Cranberry Buckwheat Muffins- from Cooking with Chef Brad -Those Wonderful Grains            

• 1 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 Tbsp. fresh orange juice
• 1 1/4 cup high-gluten bread flour (I like to mill my own hard wheat flour fresh ) 
• 1 cup buckwheat flour (also milled fresh)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

    Combine cranberries with 1/2 cup of sugar and orange juice in a medium sized bowl.  Let stand for 30 min. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease or spray a 12 cup muffin tin with Vegelene.  In the Bosch Universal or Bosch Compact machine with the batter or cookie whips, beat the eggs and melted butter until smooth.  Stir in cranberries with all their liquid.  Add the flours and the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, baking powder and soda and salt.  Sir in enough buttermilk to make a soft batter.  Do not overbeat! Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake until firm and golden brown, about 15 min.  Cool tin on a rack for 10 min. before turning out the muffins.  Makes1 doz.                                                    

   Click here for printable recipe 

 AMARANTH - Another super ancient grain, has been around a long time (over 500 years).  The Aztec people believe it could turn the weakest man into a super hero.  This small yet powerful grain is also Gluten-free and can be also used in a myriad of ways.  Ground into flour it can thicken sauces, or cooked up whole it makes a great breakfast cereal.  The flour is light and has a mild, nutty flavour that doesn't overpower the food in which it is used.  It is easily digested and packed with essential amino acids so you can even feed it to a baby.  The best way to use this grain though, is to pop it.  It gives any bread a lighter texture when the popped Amaranth is added and can also be used in making cookies and even candy.  To pop Amaranth you need a deep pot with no oil.  Just heat the pot and to see if it is hot enough place a pinch of the fine amaranth seed.  If it pops then you are ready to go.  Add no more than a couple of Tbsp. at once as adding more will cause this grain to burn.  It will only take about 15 to 20 seconds to pop so it is easy to do a lot in a short period of time. One quarter cup of grain will yield 1 cup of popped Amaranth.

Quick Amaranth Cookies -  from Cooking With Chef Brad  

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE RECIPE

• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup butter ( 2 sticks)
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

  Cream together the butter and the sugar in the Bosch Bowl equipped with either the cookie paddles or cookie/batter whisks.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

  2 cups plus 2 Tbsp. high gluten flour ( mill my own whole wheat flour in the Nutrimill)
  1 tsp. baking soda
  1 tsp. baking powder
  1 tsp. salt 

   Sift together the flour by hand or using the over the bowl flour sifter adding it to the mixture in the Bosch bowl  When beaten smooth, add:

  • 3 cups popped Amaranth
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (opt.)

  Beat the mixture well.  Drop cookies 2 inches apart on well greased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven until light brown, about 8-10 min.  Makes about 3 doz. 

  Our next post will talk about more the different grains and how to use them in various recipes, so keep watching.