She Made Sprouted Spelt Flour July 29, 2010

Soaking the dough for bread, or batter for pancakes works out well for us, but sometimes there are spur of the moment goodies to be made, where waiting for the flour to be soaked is not practical.  For this reason I have sprouted some spelt berries.  Soaking grains in an acid liquid releases the phytic acid, which I talked about a couple days ago.  But sprouting the grains does the some thing.  It releases the acid, allowing for easier and more complete digestion, but sprouting also changes the way your body views the grain.  When consumed as regular flour your body views it as a starch, but once sprouted the body views it as a vegetable, which is easier to digest.  It's pretty cool.

I sprouted some spelt berries/seeds, by placing them in a 1/2 gallon ball jar, about 1/2 full.  I soaked them, covered in water, overnight, then drained in the morning, rinsed well, and let sit on the counter until evening, I rinsed and drained again that night, the next morning and evening, and the following day I saw little tails coming out the end of the berry.  That evening I rinsed and drained them one last time, layed them out on parchment lined trays for my dehydrator and then dehydrated them overnight.  The next morning they were dry, and crispy.  I put some of them into my vitamix on high for about 1 minute and had beautiful, ready to use flour.  The rest of the sprouted, dehydrated berries are in a glass jar waiting to be ground into flour when I'm ready to use it.  The fresher the flour is the more nutrients it retains, so it's best to grind your flour when you are ready to use it.

 

This flour is going to become zucchini bread, as I have a basket full of unloved, and discarded zucchini from a friend's garden!

Comments

[Andrea]

How nice of you to love the zucchini. All vegetables need love :)
Make these:
1 whole Large Zucchini
1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic
½ cups (to 3/4 Cup) Breadcrumbs
½ cups 4-cheese Italian Blend (or Parmesan Or Romano)
2 whole Eggs
Kosher Salt To Taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
Olive Oil
Preparation Instructions
Wash and cut the end off of one large zucchini. Shred it using the large holes of a cheese grater. Squeeze the shredded zucchini inside of a clean towel until you’ve removed as much liquid as possible.

Place shredded zucchini into a medium sized bowl. Add minced garlic, breadcrumbs, cheese (shredded), eggs, kosher salt and pepper to taste. Stir with a fork until well mixed.

Heat olive oil (about ¼ inch deep in bottom of skillet) to a medium heat. When the oil is hot enough drop a glob of zucchini batter into the skillet and flatten it a bit. After about two minutes, turn the cakes over ( they should be nice golden-brown) and cook on the other side until done (about 2-3 minutes).

Serve with the dipping sauce of your choice and enjoy!

[Virginia]

Lookin' good!

[Colleen]

@Andrea- we used a similar recipe last year with our excess zucchini - yummy!!

[Andrea]

and dont forget about the disappearing zucchini orzo from Animal Vegetable Miracle ~ delicious!

And this is great, too:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/06/zucchini-strand-spaghetti/