The story about our client Harry might sound familiar to many of you: Harry came back from his doctor’s appointment with strict orders- to lose weight and up his protein levels.
Those were two tough goals to achieve for someone like Harry who is a talented baker and admitted to being “a gluten person”. He loves everything about his little hobby- learning the subject, making the dough, testing new recipes and baking the breads.
What is it about bread that makes it so hard for us to give it up?
Why do we crave the empty calories of some breads?
The answer is, for the same reasons we crave the empty calories of candy.
When we eat carbs (AKA sugar in its many forms), our body releases insulin. The release of insulin stimulates the appetite, triggers hunger, and makes us crave more high carb foods- thus creating an unhealthy cycle.
This cycle makes it easy to overeat, and in extreme cases the body can even become resistant to insulin.
Bread has been a basic food for thousands of years, in cultures all around the world. It’s accessible, easy to make, can be used as a quick snack, and also be the main ingredient in many delicious dishes.
There’s also a psychological effect when it comes to bread- it’s considered to be a “comfort food”. Comfort foods are strongly associated with well-being, and we tend to turn to carbs when we are stressed, sad, or bored. Of course “self medicating” with carbs is just a temporary fix and doesn’t solve anything…
Bread, gluten, sugar- all can be addictive, not just as a figure of speech.
Some people even go through hard withdrawals when they go cold turkey off them.
For our body, digesting a slice of white bread is similar to digesting a slice of cake, sugar wise. Whole grain bread is usually a better choice, containing more nutrients.
For all these reasons, finding an alternative bread solution for Harry was VERY challenging.
But we love challenges like this one.
We have been trying for a while now to nail the right recipe for our clients like Harry, who love bread and really need to reduce their simple carbohydrate intake and get more vegetables in their diet. So all of these trials were focused on getting the vegetables in and reaching the perfect texture so our clients can be satisfied and not feel deprived of their bread.
At first We tried giving Harry a few versions of gluten free and healthier breads and he didn’t like them. Last week when Sara made these buns it wasn’t on his weekly menu, but we just sent it to him for a tasting because we were eager to crack his code!
He happened to love it even though it still wasn’t the perfect recipe. He loved it so much that he asked for it on the next week’s menu. By that time she had already perfected the recipe.
This garbanzo bean and cauliflower gluten free bun has many great nutritional qualities. It contains plant protein and vegetables, thus higher in fiber and nutrients than a standard gluten free bread. It is low in fat and sugar. It’s a food that is ideal for anyone who is struggling to incorporate more vegetables or protein to their diet, adults and children alike. It can be added to a meal, eaten alone as a snack or as a meal in itself by creating a sandwich.
Each bun contains around 200 calories and about a serving of protein.
Ingredients for 12 large buns:
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
600 gr. / 1 lb. frozen cauliflower
200 gr. / 7 oz. cooked frozen garbanzo beans
100 gr. / 3.5 oz. unsweetened apple sauce
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
5 cups gluten free flour mix
3 eggs
Instructions:
- In a pot boil cauliflower and garbanzo beans until soft.
- In the mixer bowl combine yeast, warm water and apple sauce, leave for 10 minutes for the yeast to open up.
- With potato masher, mash the cauliflower and garbanzo beans after straining, add to the mixer and start mixing slowly.
- Add eggs, salt and baking powder, slowly add flour until it looks like a dough, if needed add more flour.
- Oil your hands with olive oil and shape dough on sheet pan to buns, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes
- In a preheated oven (180°c /350°f) bake until browned.