Instead of wheat breads...

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amy19355
amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm having a satisfying experience with yellow corn masa.

It's fine ground precooked corn meal, and mixed up with some water, salt and pepper, I use it to make little thin patties that I fry up in a little ghee (clarified butter) to have on the side of my plate where a piece of bread used to go.

I can vary the thickness of the patties to be very thin so they come out crunchy like chips, or thicker for a kind of crusty polenta pancake.

No gluten based bloat with these!

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  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,513 Member
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    I discovered socca bread in Nice. It’s a bread made from chickpea flour and is a street food there. It only has four ingredients (chickpea flour, water, oil and salt) and is comparatively low calorie. I preheat a large cast iron pizza pan, pour the batter on, and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes. It’s divine when hot and makes a great wrap.
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
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    springlering62 wrote: »
    I discovered socca bread in Nice. It’s a bread made from chickpea flour and is a street food there. It only has four ingredients (chickpea flour, water, oil and salt) and is comparatively low calorie. I preheat a large cast iron pizza pan, pour the batter on, and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes. It’s divine when hot and makes a great wrap.
    As someone that can’t do wheat for medical reasons (gluten ataxia = all kinds of neuro issues), and also have to go light on corn for GI reasons (like digesting glass - ouch!), this is intriguing! I have chickpea flour, I will have to give it a try!

    Also curious about, but have never tried cloud bread.

  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
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    springlering62 wrote: »
    I discovered socca bread in Nice. It’s a bread made from chickpea flour and is a street food there. It only has four ingredients (chickpea flour, water, oil and salt) and is comparatively low calorie. I preheat a large cast iron pizza pan, pour the batter on, and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes. It’s divine when hot and makes a great wrap.

    I’ve been looking at Socca recipes on Pinterest for ages but you’ve just nudged me over the edge to actually make it! Could eat it with the vegan cheese made with chickpea flour that was yesterday’s kitchen experiment! 😂
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
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    BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »
    Are you gluten intolerant or coeliac?

    There’s nothing wrong with a corn or masa harina based flatbread for a change but avoiding wheat for reasons other than medical requirement seems unnecessary 🤷‍♀️

    Gluten is not unhealthy in a person not allergic nor intolerant.

    It's MY problem food.

    Bread from white or whole wheat flour just doesn't work for me. The stuff clogs up my GI tract something fierce, causes water retention, and at its core is nothing more than an unwanted butter delivery system.



  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
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    moonangel12 wrote: »
    springlering62 wrote: »
    I discovered socca bread in Nice. It’s a bread made from chickpea flour and is a street food there. It only has four ingredients (chickpea flour, water, oil and salt) and is comparatively low calorie. I preheat a large cast iron pizza pan, pour the batter on, and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes. It’s divine when hot and makes a great wrap.
    As someone that can’t do wheat for medical reasons (gluten ataxia = all kinds of neuro issues), and also have to go light on corn for GI reasons (like digesting glass - ouch!), this is intriguing! I have chickpea flour, I will have to give it a try!

    Also curious about, but have never tried cloud bread.

    I"ve had some interesting results experimenting with rice and chick pea flours combined. I find the chick pea flour has a strong flavor that I don't always want. The rice flour has a nice sticky aspect to it. combined the result is not as chewy as mochi.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,513 Member
    edited December 2019
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    Socca is very thin, like crepes and has a mildly nutty taste. Best cooked on a pan that can be preheated to a high temp because it will be halfway cooked the instant it hits the pan. I use a giant cast iron Lodge pizza pan. It’s perfect for the job. The bigger the pan the better because it needs to be thin.

    Socca
    1c chickpea flour
    1.5 tbsp olive oil
    1/2 tsp kosher salt
    1c water
    (Optional: tsp of za’atar)
    Whisk and let rest 30 minutes (don’t forget the 30min rest!!!)

    Preheat over to 450. Preheat pan 5 min. Increase oven to broil. Remove and swirl a tsp of olive oil on the pan. Pour in batter and quickly tilt so batter is evenly spread.

    Broil 5-8 minutes til blistered and golden brown. Slice into wedges and eat immediately.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,176 Member
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    mmapags wrote: »
    So, you have discovered tortillas? No need for fat with a well seasoned pan. Here in Mexico we eat them far more often than bread.

    Or sopes.....mmmm sopes! Can’t overlook the tortilla’s chubby cousin 😝
  • jwoolman5
    jwoolman5 Posts: 191 Member
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    Just a reminder that there is no minimum daily requirement for wheat or other gluten-containing grains. It is not unsafe to eliminate wheat. The world is full of other options. Wheat isn't even part of every culture.

    There is no need to defend the choice to eat other foods besides wheat, whether or not some doctor told you to do so. It is just one food and not essential to life. Just replace the nutritional value of wheat in your diet (calories, protein, fiber) with appropriate other foods (not necessarily other grains). We have so many non-wheat options available commercially today for functional substitution also: pastas, flatbreads, wraps, crackers. Anything vaguely flour-like (including flours of legumes, grains, seeds, nuts) can be used for homemade.

    In our culture, often people eliminate wheat for medical reasons (celiac, allergy, intolerance) but also can do so just for variety and taste and, in the case of American wheat, the desire to minimize pesticides. Conventional wheat is a crop that is heavily dosed with pesticides all during its growth in the US, not so much in other places. People vary in their pesticide sensitivity. One US wheat farmer ended up sensitive to wheat because of so much exposure and speculated he might actually be sensitive to the pesticides.

    It actually is wise to do a trial elimination of wheat if searching for the reasons for chronic pesky problems with no obvious medical reason. Many people eat wheat every day and several times a day, and exposure definitely can make a difference in the appearance of allergy or intolerance. Symptoms can be delayed or modified depending on what else you are eating and whether your own personal threshold has been exceeded, so tracking down food offenders is tricky especially if you are eating something so frequently. The overwhelming majority of allergies do not cause anaphylactic shock and are not life-threatening. Symptoms can appear in just about any system of the body.

    Another complication for detective work is that you can even develop an allergic addiction to a beloved food, where your body has withdrawal symptoms if a meal with it is delayed. This sometimes makes people think the food is a necessity for them. But the symptoms when a meal is delayed go away once you have eliminated the offender. Took about 2 weeks for me with dairy.

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