Food For Thought: Aunt Jess's Blog

Last week, I was walking through Whole Foods, looking for my usual Flax meal when I stopped dead in my tracks in front of a huge Bob’s Red Mill Display. There, in front of me, were flours upon flours upon flours. Chickpea? Coconut? Soy? Black bean?! My mind started racing with all of the different things you could do with these powdery goodies....

After a while (and I mean, a while) reading the suggested recipes on the back of each package, I ended up taking home a batch of chickpea and coconut flour… and immediately went home to start researching just what I could do with my new found friends.

As most of my readers know, I try to avoid incorporating enriched flour into my recipes, or at least making sure the recipe uses at least half whole wheat flour. Enriched white flour is stripped of all of the healthy parts of the grain, leaving you with empty calories and few (if any) vitamins. Whole grains give you fiber and micronutrients (including folic acid, magnesium and vitamin E.), making it a healthy part of your daily diet. But working with Whole Wheat flour can be limiting. Especially for those with gluten intolerances (did you know that 1 in 133 people has a gluten sensitivity?).

The first thing I thought of when I picked up the chickpea flour was the chickpea fries I had once at Sibling Rivalry. These were dense, crispy, creamy, warm fries that tasted so good, I thought they must be a dietary disaster. And then I saw the chickpea fries recipe from Mark Bittman and fell in love. This recipe is particularly fun to do with kids as they can help mix and roll out the dough and even cut out the shapes for the fries (just make sure they are thick enough!)

Chickpeas are a great source of fiber and low on the glycemic index, which means they help keep your blood sugar in check, giving you a sustained amount of energy versus just a quick spike. Sneak in a few extra grams of good-for-you fiber in your next dough based recipe. The chickpeas give it an almost crunchy, corn-meal taste. Stick that in your hummus and eat it.

To give this week's recipe of chickpea fries a try click here!