- Share This Post
- 0
- submit
- 0
-
Sparkle (0)
I called my mother the other day to tell her about this and that, and mentioned that I had been to one of the local natural food stores to buy some spelt flour. She was utterly confused. "What kind of flour were you buying?" "Spelt? What's spelt?"
What IS spelt? Well, as far as I can ascertain, it's a grain in the wheat family that doesn't seem to cause as much harmful digestive effects for people with gluten allergies. There are more scientific explanations, but that's the basic rundown.
So why did I need spelt flour? I have been wanting to try a recipe for "In a Jiffy Spelt Veggie Burgers" that I had found through one of my favorite food blogs: Kath Eats Real Food. The recipe called for spelt flour, and, although wheat flour could easily be substituted, I always love to try new things! (I also had been wanting to buy buckwheat groats for no apparent reason other than experimental curiosity, and knew that the glorious bulk bins at the store would yield both products at very little cost.)
The result of my first foray into using so-called "alternative" flours (other than wheat) was a great success! It was also super healthy and I did not have to buy anything additional to what was in my fridge/pantry, aside from the flour, to make them.
First, I got out my lovely food processor (best gift ever...thanks mom!).
Then, I opened up a can of chickpeas I had been storing in my cabinet forever, having bought them on sale, of course, during a crazy phase of hummus making. [Please note, the Kroger "private selection" generic brand is AMAZING. In fact, the Kroger brand of everything is amazing...but more on that at a later date.] I rinsed them off, of course, to eliminate extra sodium. :) Then I measured out a cup. (What to do with the leftovers?....)
I arranged everything beautifully on my cutting board: a small carrot leftover from some amazing Moosewood Carolina Vegetable Soup, a little red bell pepper (on sale this week at Giant), a teeny bit of leftover onion (less than the recipe had called for, but I didn't want it to be too onion-y anyway), some spinach, and some mushrooms that were almost past their prime.
The recipe didn't call for mushrooms, but I needed to use them up, and Kath had said on her blog that she added them, so I thought, why not? I should have cut up more red bell pepper (as I had bought a number of them on sale) but I was lazy and didn't feel like dealing with it. So there.
Beautiful mise en place, no? Anne Burrell would be proud. [If you watched Worst Cooks in America you know that she never stopped talking about the mise en place. Never. Ever. Stopped.]
I also got out my spices. [Note that they are not expensive or fancy, and I clearly buy spices whenever they are on sale at whatever retail establishment in which I happen to be shopping...including Target. Target sells great cayenne pepper and dried basil.]
Put everything into the food processor...
And let 'er rip! It looked really pretty as it came together. I almost processed it a lot less to keep some of the colorful chunks, but kept going since I wasn't sure about it all holding together.
Transferred the mixture to another bowl and stirred in 1/4 cup mixed sunflower seeds and pepitas (the little green pumpkin seeds).
