What I really enjoy about eating fewer grains is exploring new options. Its been so fun experimenting with different flours: almond, tapioca, coconut, plantain, arrowroot, flax seed meal and how these can be substituted in recipes. I typically get bored with eating the same thing repeatedly and need to break the monotony to make food more interesting.
Cassava (Yucca)
Cassava is a starchy tuberous vegetable grown typically in tropical and sub-tropical regions, its denser in calories as compared to potatoes and extremely rich in carbohydrates. Its a primary staple food in most South American and African countries and is cooked differently in every region:
South America – Cassava is used to make bread, vegetable and also as an alcoholic beer like drink
Central America – Its used to make fried cassava cakes, in soups, yuca fritters, meat filled cassava dumplings
Caribbean – Cassava is eaten in bread form as well as cookies, ground into a paste to make Pasteles (an equivalent of tamales), bammy (small fried cassava cakes), cassava chips, pie’s
Africa – Boiled and massed cassava is cooked with spices, marinated and grilles cassava bites, used to make bread and cookies
Asia – Cassava cake made with coconut and sugar, cassava coconut curry, fermented and mixed with sugar to make an alcoholic beverage, cassava milk pudding
I notice a trend in how foods that have been eaten for centuries in developing countries is the newest fad in the US.
Otto’s Cassava Flour
Once while scouting for a Paleo tortilla recipe I stumbled upon Otto’s Cassava Flour, it was intriguing to know this could be substituted for wheat in a 1:1 ratio which makes life so much simpler. I typically struggle with proportions and so far coconut flour has been the most difficult one to work with. Using Otto’s Cassava Flour is just as easy as making dough with whole wheat flour. I add golden flax meal, sea salt, some oil to the cassava flour and used water to knead the dough. The flax meal helps to hold the flour together and of course is a great source of fiber.
So I tried two different Indian flat bread (paratha) recipes, the first one is stuffed with spiced white radish and the other one is a fresh garlic mix-in.
1 – White Radish Stuffed Flat Bread
I’m not a fan of radish but love love the flavor and texture it lends to this flat bread. Radish is very high in fiber and low in calories, its a great alternative to potato stuffing. The one thing you need to make sure while using radish as flat bread stuffing is to grate and squeeze out its natural juice. I smothered the flat bread with lots of Ghee and it was yummy!
- 1/4 Cup Otto's Cassava Flour
- 1 Tbsp Golden Flax Meal
- 1 Tsp Oil or Ghee
- 1-2 Tbsp Water
- Salt to Taste
- 1 Small-Medium Size Radish
- 1/4 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/4 Tsp Paprika
- 1/4 Tsp Dry Mango Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Carom Seeds
- 1 Tbsp Chopped Cilantro
- 2 Tsp Oil
- Salt to taste
- Mix all the ingredients for the dough and knead with water, add more water if required.
- Make sure the dough is not too dry.
- Grate the radish and squeeze all its juice out.
- Heat the oil in pan and add the carom seeds
- Then add the grated radish and stir for 2 minutes.
- Add the spices and stir for 2 minutes.
- Add the cilantro towards the end and let the stuffing cool for a few minutes.
- Roll the dough into a large ball.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll each evenly with a rolling pin.
- Place enough radish stuffing on two flattened doughs and top it with the other two rolled out doughs.
- Grease a pan with ghee and cook each flatbread on medium heat for 3-4 minutes on each side.
- The cassava flour can be substituted with regular whole wheat flour.
2 – Fresh Garlic Flat Bread
Fresh garlic is the most amazing thing ever! So many people I know didn’t even think anything like this existed…but this is real! Fresh garlic is slightly more pungent and tastes even better than regular Garlic, I usually buy a big bunch, chop it, freeze it and use it in place of regular garlic. This is my most favorite paratha (flat bread) recipe and I ate a lot if it while growing up. Only difference now is, I recreated it using Cassava Flour instead.
- 1/4 Cup Fresh Garlic
- 2-3 Hot Green Chilies
- 1/4 Cup chopped Cilantro
- 1 Tbsp water
- 1/4 Cup Otto's Cassava Flour
- 1 Tbsp Golden Flax Meal
- 1 Tsp Oil or Ghee
- 1-2 Tbsp Water
- Put all the ingredients for the garlic paste in a food processor and grind to make a smooth paste.
- Mix all the ingredients including the garlic paste to make the dough.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll them out using a rolling pin.
- Heat a pan and add some ghee, then cook the flat bread for 2 minutes on each side.
- Top it with more ghee if needed.
- The cassava flour can be substituted with regular whole wheat flour.
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