Whether you’re avoiding wheat flour by necessity or are just looking for some variety in a stale diet, bean flours in general–and chickpea flour in particular– are a nutritious alternative to some of the most common flours in our lives.

The most commonly-used gluten-free flours and starches (like rice flour and tapioca starch) offer little by way of protein or fiber.  In fact, the starchy qualities of these flours–which tend to comprise most GF breads, pizza crusts and other commercially-prepared baked goods– help account for the fact that gluten-free baked goods often have up to twice the calories and up to 50% more carbohydrate compared to their conventional counterparts.

In contrast, bean flours offer a delicious and nutritious (gluten-free) alternative to these starchy staples, and are versatile enough to star as center-of-plate foods… or play a supporting role in a meal as bread’s gluten-free understudy.   Take chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour for example: 1/4 cup contains 110 calories, 6g protein, 18g of carbohydrate (of which a hefty 5g is fiber) and an impressive 10% of the daily value for iron. Compare that to 1/4 cup of (whole) brown rice flour, which contains 140 calories, 3g of protein, 31g of carbohydrate (of which only 1g is fiber) and 4% of the daily value for iron.

Humble chickpea flour even edges out whole wheat flour in a nutritional tête à tête:  it has 2g more protein and 1g more fiber in that same 110 calorie, 1/4 cup serving. Which makes it a lovely stand-in for plain wheat flour in recipes for breaded fish or chicken that call for a bit of a flour-and-egg dredging.

Contributing to the high total fiber content in raw bean flours–particularly white bean, lentil and chickpea flours–is a unique type of fiber called “resistant starch.” And lest you fixate on the word “starch” and worry that bean flours will spike your blood sugar like white potatoes or refined flours, I draw your attention to the “resistant” part, instead.  This unique type of starch resists digestion in your small intestine, and therefore it can’t be absorbed for energy like a normal “starch.” As a result, it does not produce a glycemic (blood sugar) response;  in fact, research shows that eating the type of resistant starch found in beans will actually blunt the blood sugar and insulin response after a meal.   Since it is not digested and absorbed, resistant starch travels on to your colon, intact, where the resident bacteria break it down (ferment it) to meet their own energy needs.  One of the byproducts of this fermentation process is a family of very beneficial (to you) compounds called short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which, among their many contributions to your health, help prevent colon cancer by reducing the absorption of certain dietary carcinogens. Whole grains and beans are the primary sources of resistant starch in our diets, and raw bean flours are an excellent source of this beneficial type of fiber.

So now that you’re standing on line at the grocery store with a bag of chickpea flour in hand, what to do with it?  Here are two ideas road-tested in my kitchen this past week:

Idea #1: Make “Chickpea-zza”

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find acceptable GF pizza-crust substitutes.  Most frozen varieties fall somewhere along the scale of cardboard to passable, but certainly not objectively “good.”   Of the mixes, I’ve found the Bob’s Red Mill GF Pizza Crust mix to be the best

Chickpea skillet bread with thyme, here served as an accompaniment to a homemade Soupe au Pistou (vegetable soup with pesto)

from both a taste, texture and nutritional perspective, but even it has its drawbacks: waiting for the dough to rise, dealing with the sticky batter and–especially in the summer–having to turn on the oven to bake it.

For all of these reasons, I was more than delighted to discover the world of chickpea-flour pizzas, inspired by the crepe-like “Socca” from Nice and a similar Italian dish called “Farinata.” You can make these pizza crusts from scratch from chickpea flour, water and salt; they don’t require any yeast; they cook very fast; and they’re made in a non-stick frying pan, so when they’re done, they slide right out onto your serving plate.  They are SO very easy.  And tasty!

According to Madhur Jaffrey in her cookbook entitled “World Vegetarian” (Clarkson Potter, 1999), these chickpea breads are traditionally made like pizzas in a brick oven and eaten by workmen as a morning snack.  I’m guessing that this was the inspiration behind actually topping it with some fresh vegetables and cheese to turn them into bona-fide pizzas.  Jaffrey’s super-simple batter and clever stovetop-to-broiler method made for the easiest and pizza-iest version of the several recipes I consulted.  You can click here to get her original recipe for Chickpea Pizza with Tomato and Parmesan; don’t worry about the broiler part, as most countertop toaster oven/broilers will accommodate a 12″ frying pan (just leave the oven door open for the few minutes while the pizza cooks and turn the pan as necessary during cooking to make sure its cooking evenly), so you need not turn on the kitchen oven and heat up the whole house.   Once you make this pizza for the first time, you’ll no doubt realize how flexible the recipe can be to accommodate the herbs, vegetables and cheeses of your choosing.  (Fresh thyme leaves are lovely in the crust, too; and thinly-sliced zucchini is a delicious topping as well…)  Alternatively, you can just prepare the batter plain–no herbs and no toppings–and make it into a simple gluten-free skillet bread for breakfast or lunch.  Also note that when you make this batter for the first time, it will seem too thin and liquidy.  Just trust the recipe; it firms up perfectly in the frying pan, and will proceed to become nice and brown under the broiler.

When life hands you chickpea flour, make falafel tacos.

Idea #2: Make Falafel

Let’s debunk some myths about falafel, shall we?  It need not be made only from cooked beans, and it need not be deep-fried.   You can whip up a fantastic, authentic version of falafel at home, making a fast batter out of chickpea flour and a few other dry pantry staples, which can then be fried in a non-stick pan using a modest amount (2 TBSP) of olive oil.  This terrific recipe for falafel from Bob’s Red Mill produces a creamy batter that resembles hummus and results in a delicious batch of 12 lovely falafel balls with just 60 calories a pop.  I served my falafel balls (pucks?) taco-style, in gluten-free organic corn tortillas lined with my favorite cilantro chutney, a romaine lettuce leaf for crunch and drizzled with a touch of hot sauce.  Two such tacos (pictured) served with a simple chopped salad of cucumber or red peppers makes for a fast and healthy 400-calorie lunch.

Tweet This Post

For those of us who didn’t grow up in California, it’s understandable that our only association with figs may be as the sticky sweet filling for the Fig Newtons of our childhoods.

In most parts of the country, fresh figs make only a brief appearance in our supermarkets–for a small window in the summertime (that’s NOW!)–and when they do, they’re not always cheap.  Plus, they’re quite perishable, so once you buy them, they’ll only last a few days in the fridge.

But since I’ve been home from Provence–where fig trees literally grow wild along highway roads, where every breakfast table is accessorized with a fig jam, where markets offer multiple varieties of fresh figs for the same price per kilo as apricots–I’ve had figs on the brain.  While our lovely community garden in Jersey City is home to 2 enormous fig trees, our East Coast figs aren’t quite ripe for picking yet. (Figs don’t ripen after they’re picked, so you really do have to wait).   So when I spotted an 8oz clamshell of fresh California “Brown Turkey” figs priced at a relatively affordable $2.99 at Whole Foods today, I decided to pick some up to keep the spirit of France alive in my kitchen for another few days.

Nutritional benefits of figs

One medium-sized fresh fig has about 35 calories and 1g of fiber.

Fancy that! Dried figs are a good source of fiber and a not-too-shabby source of calcium

Dried figs are an excellent source of fiber and a respectable source source of calcium.  A very modest 1/4 cup serving of dried figs contains about 90 calories, 4g of fiber (!) and 6% of the daily value for calcium; in fact, a 2005 study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition that compared the nutritional benefits of a variety of dried fruits found that dried figs contained the highest amount of both fiber and calcium of all other fruits tested (which were apricots, dates, cranberries, raisins and prunes).  According to the same study, dried figs also appear to have the highest in vivo antioxidant capacity of most commonly-eaten dried fruits. (In other words, they may not have the highest antioxidant content of all fruits tested when measured outside the body, but they induced the highest antioxidant response in the body after they were eaten.)

How to enjoy figs

Fresh figs work well with both savory dishes and sweet ones.

While sliced fresh figs on a cheese platter is an elegant and delicious pairing, there are so many additonal and creative ways to feature fresh figs in summer meals.  Martha recommends using sliced fresh figs in her very Napa-inspired, picnic-friendly and vegetarian Fig, Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion sandwich… which, I should mention, would be a perfect use for some squishy, GF-sandwich bread.

If you think these grilled figs *look* delicious, just wait till you smell them...

Alternatively, fresh figs can be grilled and served atop salads and desserts alike to add interesting flavor and texture: in fact, I chose to use my figs in this delicious savory-sweet recipe for Grilled Fig Salad from Whole Foods.  (I used pre-washed arugula and the recipe took me all of 6 minutes from start to finish.  It was very delicious, but I think it may have benefited even more from a light shaving of parmesan for good measure.)  Grilling figs results in some caramelization of their natural sugars, which adds a fantastic dimension to their flavor.  Of course, you can also grill or roast figs to serve them atop a scoop of ice cream in a compote-like fashion. On our Provence vacation, I had a heavenly dessert consisting of hot, roasted figs served atop a scoop of caramel ice cream.  The contrast of temperatures (hot vs cold) and textures (smooth ice cream vs pulpy, seedy fig) was positively divine.

To grill fresh figs, just slice them in half, toss them in a little bit of balsamic vinegar with a touch of brown sugar and grill on a lightly oiled grill about 3 minutes each side, or until good grill marks appear.  If you’re using a countertop grill/panini press like I did,  just spray the grill with some oil, keep the grill open as you cook the figs, and use tongs to flip them when ready; if you close the grill, the weight from the top surface will squash your figs.  (In the interest of time, you may gently close the press on the figs so long as you hold the handle while the figs cook to prevent the full weight of the top surface from flattening them.)  Alternatively, you can roast figs in the oven much to the same effect; for inspiration, check out this recipe for Roasted Figs with Fig & Wine Sauce from Food & Wine.

Of course, fresh figs won’t be around for long, and since dried figs are lovely and super-nutritious in their own right, it’s worth mentioning some fun ways to enjoy them, too.

You can cut dried figs into little pieces and use them in lieu of raisins in any baking, granola or trail mix recipe.  You can also toss them into salads: can’t you just picture the sweet and tangy loveliness of biting into a forkful of arugula salad with goat cheese, walnuts and dried figs?  (In keeping with the theme, I’d go so far as to top it with one of my favorite gluten-free salad dressings: Wild Thymes’ Fig & Walnut Balsamic Vinaigrette…)

While attending this year’s Fancy Food Show in New York, I came across a company called Figamajigs. They market a 130-calorie Fig Bar that consists of dried figs mixed with cocoa powder, shaped into a bar, and covered in a thin layer of dark chocolate.  It really hit my chocolate spot and satisfied that craving, but due to its fig content, contained an impressive 5g of fiber, along with a decent amount of iron (8% of the daily value… every little bit counts!) and modest amount of calcium (4% of the daily value).  A chocolate fix that actually provides some appetite satiety (due to the fiber) and contributes to some of my harder-to-get mineral needs?  Seemed like a pretty good idea to me.  Personally, I think their Fig Bar is a better choice than their Bite-Size candy-coated product, which have more calories and less fiber due to the higher coating-to-fig ratio.

So there you have it.  Now get on out there and get your fig on.

Tweet This Post

One of the many guest appearances Ratatouille made on our honeymoon; here, as a base for seared fish

I’m back from my magical trip to Provence, and am delighted to report that the South of France turned out to be a surprisingly GF-friendly place to eat! In fact, it was SO much easier for me to eat out at restaurants there than it is for me here in New York.

Unlike the cuisine that dominates in Paris and in most Parisian-style French bistros in the US, the regional Provencal cuisine is NOT based on the classic French ‘mother sauces’ that contain a butter and flour roux as their thickening agent. Instead, Provencal cuisine employs flour-free vegetable,  fish and/or cream-based sauces such as tomato coulis, anchoïade (anchovy & garlic sauce), and various vegetable cream sauces (mushroom, red peppers…) to accent their vegetable, fish and meat dishes.  Gluten-free vegetable tapenades and terrines (olive, artichoke, red pepper, eggplant…) are also widely served as flavorful accents to a meal,  and you’re as likely to see them served with bread as you are with an omelet or a piece of fish.  After having multiple restauarant owners walk me through their menus item by item to tell me what was safe for me to eat and what wasn’t, I came to conclude that the Provencal cuisine is much more “honest” than is American cuisine; in other words, there tended to only be gluten in foods that one would expect to find gluten in, and I did not encounter any hidden gluten in unexpected places. The only foods that were off limits to me on menus were pastas (obviously) and the toasted croutons served alongside the bouilliabase (obviously).  As a result, I was able to easily gain the requisite weight one would expect to gain on a proper French Honeymoon.  Now back the gym…

The other thing so wonderful and different about eating in Provence in July was the monopoly that locally-grown, in-season vegetables had on the region’s menus.  There was not a head of broccoli or cauliflower in

Another ratatouille sighting, this time as a heaping side dish served at a prix fixe meal to hundreds of revelers at the Vacqueyras Wine Festival

sight at any market or in any restauarant. Instead, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants and artichokes dominated the local markets and the restauarant menus. It struck me that starting around late July through August, we face a similar glut of tomatoes and zucchini here in the northeast; our gardens produce more than we can eat, the farmers’ markets beckon with stacks of inexpensive, sweet heirloom tomatoes that just beg to be bought by the pound… and we collectively fantasize about learning how to can our own veggies at home to capture the fleeting summer bounty and stretch it out beyond its short, natural life.

So what do the French do with their embarassing riches of the world’s most flavorful tomatoes, zucchini and eggplants?

They make Ratatouille.

Ratatouille is a dish that originated in Provence, and it appeared on our plates in some incarnation at outdoor festivals and Michelin-starred restaurants alike.  We had it served to us warm and cold.  We had versions with peppers and without peppers.  We had it offered up as a standalone side dish to fish or chicken and as a filling for omelets and crepes.  Each chef put their own spin on it, and each version we tasted was equally delicious.  It’s hardly a surprise, then, that I chose it as the topic for my first post-vacation blog post.

This recipe for Ratatouille comes from a cookbook I bought while traveling called When Our Grandmothers Cooked in Provence, by Frédérique Féraud-Espérandieu.  (Based on the number accent marks in her name, I decided she must be a huge authority on all things French, so I chose her cookbook above the others.)  Make up a big old batch, freeze some, keep some in the fridge, and serve it for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, take it to potluck picnics, eat it hot or cold and don’t feel guilty about buying that enormous bag of tomatoes from the Farmer’s Market next month.

Recipe: Somebody’s French Grandmother’s Ratatouille

Serves 6

Olive oil

4 (small) eggplants (or 2 medium-sized ones), peeled and diced

4 (small-medium) zucchinis, diced

4 green peppers, seeded and cut into strips

2 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and quartered

2 (large) onions, sliced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 bay leaf

1 pinch ground thyme

A few chopped basil leaves (to your own taste)

2 twigs of fresh tarragon

3-4 pinches minced parsley

Salt & pepper

Optional: a handful of pitted green olives (the author recommends “Picholine” variety if you can find them; they’re a firm, immature type of green olive)

Directions:

Heat 3 TBSP olive oil in a large saute pan over medium/high heat.

Saute zucchini until golden.  Season with salt & pepper, remove from heat and drain. Set aside.

Using same pan, repeat the same process for the eggplant until brown.

Repeat the same process for the peppers (you can use less oil here…)

Finally, sweat the onion in 3 TBSP of olive oil, add the tomatoes, garlic, thyme, basil, bay leaf and tarragon.  Cook uncovered and leave this “coulis” to reduce.

Add all of the cooked vegetables back into the with the saucepan with the coulis, add the olives if you wish, stir  until blended, and let simmer on a very low heat for an additional 15 minutes.

Check the seasoning and adjust to taste.

Garnish with the chopped parsley.

Because it would be un-French of me to calculate the precise nutrition info of this dish, suffice it to say that even if you use the total of 12 (!) TBSP of olive oil that the recipe calls for, that makes for 2 TBSP per person, or about 240 calories.  The vegetables are so low calorie that each serving will still only come in at around the 300 calorie range, so enjoy it like the French do: avec pleasure and sans guilt.

Tweet This Post

Dear readers,

I will be taking the next 2 weeks off from blogging to take a long-overdue honeymoon.  Destination: the south of France.

Since France isn’t exactly the most celiac-friendly of destinations, in anticipation of my trip, I’ve done a little bit of research to help me eat my way safely through this bastion of regional culinary delights.  If ever you find yourself planning a similar trip, perhaps it will be of use to you, too:

• I downloaded the Gluten Free Passport: a nifty list of French phrases to help me communicate my “blé-free” dietary needs at a restaurant
• I discovered that local health food stores (”magasin bio”) are my best bet to find gluten-free baguettes (!) and crackers to serve as delivery vehicles for the region’s famous cheeses, honeys and confitures.  In fact, a google search for “magasin bio aix en provence”  turned up the names and addresses of multiple health food stores near the place we’ll be staying.
• Rather than dwell on all of the delicacies I’ll be missing out on, I compiled a list of gluten-free regional specialties that I plan to seek out.  These include:
  • Socca, a chickpea flatbread traditionally topped with savory deliciousness like anchovies and onions.  (Eat it along with me by trying out Mark Bittman’s recipe for it here)
  • Summer soups, like Soupe au pistou (vegetable soup with garlic/basil/olive oil) or bouillabaisse (seafood soup in a saffron broth that features locally-caught fish like red mullet (rouget), sea bass (loup), eels and all manner of shellfish … but I’ll have to pass on the toast that it’s traditionally served with)
  • Salads!  The Salade Niçoise originated in Nice, which was in the south of France last time I checked.  (But you certainly don’t need to visit France to enjoy one; here’s a classic recipe for the dish popularized by Julia Child herself.)
  • Calissons, a glazed, flourless-cake-like almond confection flavored with melon or orange that originated in Aix-en-Provence
  • And of course, the fish are locally caught, the lamb is locally-raised and grass-fed, the fruits and vegetables are all locally-grown and the herbs that flavor everything are literally grown in each restaurant’s backyard.  It’s long trip to make in order to be able to truly experience local cuisine, but I can’t wait…

I promise to take lots of food pictures and share some recipes upon my return.  But meanwhile, feel free to peruse the archives to visit some of my favorite posts until I’m back on the blogging circuit the week of 7/20:

• On a summer smoothie kick?  Learn about why adding some ground flaxseed into the mix is so beneficial.
• Check out this tasty recipe for Shakshouka, a light, healthy and vegetably Moroccan brunch dish
• If you’re eating more salads now that it’s summer, try topping yours with my grandma’s Salmon Croquette recipe for some extra protein and omega-3’s
• Have you moved your gym workout outdoors?  If so, try replacing the electrolytes you’re sweating away with Coconut Water, nature’s so-called sports drink

Tweet This Post

An ostrich egg is the equivalent of 20-24 chicken eggs

At first, I regarded those oversized ostrich and emu eggs in the Whole Foods produce department as an oddity intended to amuse us shoppers as we bagged our loose cremini mushrooms.  Surely no one *actually* spent $39.99 on an enormous exotic egg, I thought to myself.

But those eggs somehow infiltrated my psyche.  And on each return visit to the store, I allowed my imagination to entertain the absurd notion of actually buying one of those eggs.  ’What would I do with it?’, I asked myself. (Omelet, I decided.) Just for kicks, I asked the produce manager how many people an Ostrich egg might, hypothetically, feed, if said ostrich egg was whipped into a hypothetical omelet.  Twelve, I was told.

Twelve people from one egg?  Granted it was a big egg, but twelve seemed like an exaggeration.  Later that evening, a google search confirmed what I had been told: that an average ostrich egg was indeed the equivalent of about 2 dozen chicken eggs.  And at that, the gauntlet had been thrown down: at the first occasion I had to feed 12 people, I was going to buy that $39.99 egg and see for myself.

The weekend of the 4th of July was my first such opportunity.  Our family and friends were gathering at the beach in Rhode Island for the holiday weekend, and Alex and I would be in charge of breakfast, as usual. We snagged the last of the ostrich eggs at the Paramus, NJ, Whole Foods (um… who else is actually buying these things, too?  Please identify yourselves…), wrapped it gingerly in a ShamWow, and transported it to Rhode Island.  At every pothole, I envisioned nine discrete scenarios in which our precious egg would shatter before fulfilling its destiny as an omelet-for-twelve.  But the thick-shelled egg survived the trip, and when Saturday morning arrived, it was time to make the most expensive omelet of our lives.

The mis en place involved sauteing 2 diced onions and 2 diced peppers, sauteing about 12 oz of sliced mushrooms with fresh oregano from our backyard, and shredding some locally-made cheddar we picked up at the farmer’s market.  And then there was the matter of cracking the monster egg.  Alex placed it in a large bowl, hit it three times with a chef’s knife, carefully peeled away the shell fragments and pierced a hole in the exposed membrane.  The egg contents were somewhat surprising: rather than a discrete yolk and white, we encountered a creamy-yellow emulsion whose smooth texture was interrupted only by a disturbingly large chalize (the gloppy clear part of an egg that holds the yolk in place).  Oh, well.  Good thing we weren’t planning on separating it for an egg white omelet.

Pouring the egg contents into a bowl...

...the full volume of our egg's contents...

...the final product(s)!

Our egg made 3 jumbo and 1 large omelets (pictured above), which, when served to twelve moderate eaters accompanied by a pile of toast and an assortment of fresh berries, was indeed enough to provide a satisfying breakfast for all. (Myth confirmed.)  The texture of the egg was slightly airier than the typical chicken-egg omelet; in fact, its appearance was pockmarked with little air bubbles that lent it a crepe-like appearance. The flavor was exactly the same as a regular chicken egg, as far as our unrefined egg palates were concerned.  And as some additional research would reveal, the nutritional profile as ostrich egg is almost identical to that of a chicken egg.  Actually, to ~20-24 chicken eggs.

For those of you concerned about eating eggs for reasons of cholesterol, I will offer the following: for most healthy people without a family history of high cholesterol, dietary cholesterol in moderate amounts isn’t going to have much of an impact on your blood cholesterol levels. That’s because the body will adjust the amount of cholesterol it produces downward in response to a higher level of dietary cholesterol.  In fact, for most people, the amount of saturated fat in the diet will have a much greater impact of blood cholesterol than dietary cholesterol will, so I might be more concerned about an egg-white omelet stuffed with cheese and ham than I would an equivalent whole-egg omelet stuffed with just vegetables. (Of course, high-cholesterol foods are usually also high in saturated fat, so it can be hard to have one without the other.)  One large egg has ~210mg of cholesterol, which means that a 2-egg omelet will already exceed the daily recommended limit for cholesterol intake, which is 300mg.  Does that mean its unhealthy to ever have a 2 egg omelet in one sitting?  Not at all; in fact, I personally rely on eggs as an important source of inexpensive, high-quality protein in my diet, and the humble frittata happens to feature prominently in my weekday dinner playlist.   I’d recommend viewing the limit in a weekly perspective: 300mg/day translates into a guideline of 2,100mg/week; so as long as the daily average based on your weekly intake generally falls in line, you should be fine.  Egg yolks, shellfish (but not scallops), liver and red meat/poultry are the foods with the highest cholesterol content, and only animal-based foods contain cholesterol. (You can click here for a list of the cholesterol content of common foods.)  Another strategy to help reduce the amount of dietary cholesterol you absorb is to make sure you’re eating a high-fiber diet that contains 6-10g of soluble fiber per day; the soluble fiber “traps” some cholesterol in your gut and escorts it out of the body, preventing you from absorbing it. (This is why foods rich in soluble fiber, like oatmeal, oat bran and Cheerios, all claim to lower cholesterol.)   Good food sources of soluble fiber include oats/oat bran, barley, beans/peas, ground flaxseeds, nuts, apples and carrots, and soluble fiber content is listed on many nutrition facts labels as a component of total dietary fiber.

The exception is for the <1% of the population that has familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), which is a hereditary condition in which the body’s cells are less able to remove LDL particles from the bloodstream to use their contents (fat and cholesterol) for various essential cell functions.  (Don’t forget: cholesterol is a precursor for lots of beneficial substances in our body, including various hormones and Vitamin D, which is why we manufacture it to begin with.)  Because the cells of the liver cannot take up the LDL particles as efficiently, the negative feedback mechanism that suppresses endogenous cholesterol production in the liver in response to dietary cholesterol is less effective.  In other words, the liver doesn’t “know” how much cholesterol you’ve eaten because it isn’t able to take up the circulating cholesterol from your blood very efficiently.  So it just keeps on producing cholesterol to meet what it thinks the body’s needs are, no matter how much you’ve already eaten. People who have this condition are likely to experience a build-up of cholesterol-containing LDL in the bloodstream, placing them at high risk for early cardiovascular disease. In this case, eating egg (yolks) and other high-cholesterol foods even in very modest amounts *will* have an impact on blood cholesterol levels, and thus it would be prudent to lay off (no pun intended) the omelets–ostrich or otherwise– altogether.

Tweet This Post

I've been dreaming about eating an egg salad sandwich on soft, squishy bread for over two years now.

I’ve come to regard my gluten intolerance as a blessing in disguise.  After all, it forced me to diversify my diet in ways that have been both healthful and delicious and led me to fabulous new foods that may never have crossed my radar otherwise.  My friendships with Teff, Mochi, Millet, Polenta,  Buckwheat, Quinoa and Amaranth have flourished since I broke up with wheat, and we’ve spent countless happy meals together over the years.   Plus, gluten intolerance keeps the bread basket from spoiling my appetite when I go out to eat… and in so doing, leaves me a couple hundred calories in my budget for a few bites of dessert.  (I’d take a bite or three of Flourless Chocolate Cake or Creme Brulee over a half-stale baguette any day…)  With the ever-increasing number of gluten-free products available these days–and the ever-improving quality of these products–what’s to miss?

Still, I will admit to having the *occasional* wistful moment, where a glutinous vestige of my previous life comes back to haunt me.  Catching a whiff of the aroma as I pass by a pizza parlor… encountering a brunch platter of heaving, hot NYC bagels… and, much to my own surprise, encountering something as simple as an egg salad sandwich with lettuce and tomato on two pieces of squishy sandwich bread.

It turns out that I’ve really missed squishy sandwich bread.  While my freezer is always stocked with acceptable gluten-free bread options (most recently, Whole Foods’ Gluten Free Bakehouse Prairie Bread and Kinnikinnick Many Wonder Multigrain Rice Bread, these breads have two major drawbacks.  

1. If you want them to taste good, they absolutely have to be toasted. 
2. They can be quite dense, and results in their having twice the number of calories per slice as a ‘normal’ piece of wheat bread.  Case in point: one slice of the Gluten Free Bakehouse Prairie Bread has 150 calories, 23g of carbohydrate and 5g of fat, compared with a standard piece of wheat bread, which has about 80 calories, 15g of carbohydrate and 0-1g of fat.  That’s an extra 140 calories per day if you’re having a 2-slice sandwich every day.   Furthermore, the carbohydrate difference is significant if you have diabetes and are following a carbohydrate-controlled diet.  (The Kinnikinnick product only has 90 calories per slice, but it still really needs to be toasted in order to taste good.)

But I dared not complain about these drawbacks for fear of being accused of wanting to have my bread… and eat it, too.  So I just took sandwiches out of my regular rotation, saving that frozen bread for the very occasional grilled cheese or tuna sandwich where its toastiness would be an asset.  

Then along came a man named Udi.  And I am happy to report that his tasty, squishy, airy, gluten-free sandwich bread is on its way to a supermarket near you.  How do I know this?  Because I had the chance to sample my very own piece this past weekend at the New York Fancy Food Show, where Udi’s, previously known outside their home state of Colorado only for their best-selling (but not yet gluten-free, hint, hint…) granola, was launching a whole new line of gluten-free baked goods.

The new Udi’s GF Sandwich bread comes in two varieties: white and whole-grain.  The white variety is made with tapioca starch, brown rice flour and potato starch; the whole grain version has those same flours/starches with additional teff flour and flax seed meal.  Like most other GF baked goods, the breads are not particularly good sources of fiber (0.5g per slice).   Nonetheless, having tasted both varieties, read the

Sinking my teeth into a squishy piece of sandwich bread with Udi's CEO (shown here hawking the company's new GF pizza crusts)

 nutrition label and spoken to the company’s CEO, I think these breads have a few things going for them:  

1. Taste and Texture.  The Udi’s GF breads are the first ones I’m aware of that don’t need to be toasted for best flavor/texture.  In fact, they suggest that you just thaw it and eat it soft.  Because Udi’s has its roots as a conventional bread bakery, their standards as far as acceptable taste and texture are based on conventional, wheat breads.  The breads aren’t designed to be “good enough”; they’re designed to be just plain good.  As a result, the slices are airy, soft and spongy when thawed… not dense or heavy like many other GF breads.
2. Calories.  Each slice has a much more reasonable 70-80 calories and 11-12g of carbohydrate (depending on the variety), which is the same  (or less) than a standard 1 oz slice of wheat bread.   To compensate for the relatively low fiber, serve your sandwich with a side of jicama sticks or baby carrots or chase it with a cup of fresh berries.

You can check the company’s website to see where the breads are distributed; apparently, they are expected to be in wide distribution on the East Coast by the end of this year.  If you live in Denver, please stop by their GF bakery to pester them to get their products distributed Jersey City, NJ as soon as possible.  I’ve had a hankering for an egg salad sandwich for about 2 years now…

Tweet This Post