Healthy Buckwheat, Chia Seeds & Carrot Bread

I am always on the look out for healthy recipes, in particular breads and cakes. This is because a lot of store-bought breads and cakes contain a little too much sugar, saturated fat, preservatives and/or do not contain much nutritional value. As such, I am always looking for recipes which are nutritious and good for our bodies.

If I come across a recipe that I really like but it contains ‘too much’ refined sugar, saturated fat or refined flour, I will try and make the recipe healthier by replacing the refined sugar with natural sweeteners and reducing the amount of sugar, use apple sauce or unsaturated fat instead of the saturated fat and replace the refined flour with oat flour, wholemeal flour or wholemeal spelt flour. Sometimes, these dishes may not turn out the way I want it to and I will have to alter the recipe the next time I make it to make the dish more edible and tasty.

This time around I tried making bread using buckwheat kernels. The end product was a success. The bread is crisp on the outside but softer and moist on the inside. It is also on the denser side for a bread. The best part about this bread is that it is yeast free, gluten free, sugar free, vegan, packed with fibre and contains only 7 ingredients including water!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know what you think of this recipe.

Makes a medium size loaf of bread (thinly sliced into 18 slices of bread)

For those  of you counting calories and macros, you can use the following table as a guide.

	Carbohydrates (g)	Protein (g)	Fat (g)	Calories
Per Slice	12.5	3.2	5.5	112.1

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups buckwheat kernels/groats;
• 1/4 cup chia seeds;
• 1/4 cup olive oil;
• 1 carrot, shredded;
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder;
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt; and
• 1 cup cold water.

Method

1. Soak the buckwheat kernels in cold water for 2 hours until softened;
2. Soak chia seeds in 1/2 cup cold water until gel like (this should take approximately 30 minutes);
3. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius;
4. Drain the buckwheat kernels and rinse thoroughly. Make sure all the water is completely drained;
5. Place the buckwheat kernels in a food processor;
6. Add the chia gel, the remaining 1/2 cup of cold water, shredded carrot, olive oil, baking powder and salt to the food processor;

   

7. Allow the mixture to blend/process for 3 minutes. The bread mixture should resemble a batter consistency with some whole buckwheat kernels left in the mix;

   

8. Spoon the bread mixture into a loaf tin lined with baking paper or sprayed/greased with olive oil;

   

9. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until firm to touch and bounces back when pressed with your fingers;
10. Remove from the oven and cool for approximately 30 minutes;
11. Remove from the loaf tin and cool completely on a rack;

    

12.  The bread should be crisp on the outside and slightly moist on the inside;
13. Cool completely before eating;
14. Store in the fridge for up to a week or up to 3 months in the freezer. I sliced the whole loaf before storing it in the fridge/freezer; and
15. Enjoy your bread with savoury or sweet condiments (like my healthy chia seed cherry jam), with avocado and eggs, peanut butter, soup or even burger patties. I like to toast my bread before eating it 🙂

 

Happy baking,

Suba

Xx