Saturday 9 February 2013

Rice Free Please!

Gluten free and Rice Free





buckwheat and millet


Lots of you are asking for some rice free recipes... there are lots of fabulous gluten free grains out there and although my family do not tolerate them, I have done some experimenting for you.








Some of the alternative grains are very high in protein and other nutrients and make an excellent addition to your baking:

Quinoa
Amaranth
Buckwheat
Millet
Sorghum

These are my favourites... All except the sorghum are considered seeds not grains so are suitable for grain free diets (nice!). Some have very strong flavours so I have found they work well in combination with eachother.

In my second book 'Thirty Second Baking' I have used millet and buckwheat. They work really well together and impart a beautiful flavour. You can exclude the small amount of rice in these recipes and just simply increase the millet and buckwheat flour.

If you have a Thermomix, you can grind your own flour from these grains. If not, all of these are available at health food shops, even some supermarkets.

Sorghum flour can be found at Indian grocers labelled, Jawar Atta. It has a lovely texture and is an excellent replacement for rice. It is a grain so not for the grain free folk. You can subsitute it entirely for all the rice in my recipes as it has a lovely mild flavour.

What about the starch?

You still need some starch in the recipes... keep the ratio as stated in the recipe for best results.

Converting rice recipes

In my recipes, I often use a portion of white rice and brown rice. When you start to experiment with the flavours of these other gluten free flours, I recommend you replace the white rice flour with one of the above flours and the brown with another.

For example,
instead of white rice flour... use buckwheat flour
instead of brown rice flour... use millet flour

For example,
instead of white rice flour... use sorghum
instead of brown rice flour... use buckwheat

For example,
instead of white rice flour... use buckwheat
instead of brown rice flour... use quinoa

For example,
instead of white rice flour... use sorghum
instead of brown rice flour... use amaranth


Use any combination you like... even using 1/4C of each of the flours will produce a great result. The melding of the flavours is delicious!



I will be posting some grain free recipes using Millet and Buckwheat on my Beyond Failsafe Blog


I look forward to hearing your favourite combination!