With this cold wintery weather, it is important that we adjust our eating to include foods that are warm and satisfying to eat in winter, rather than forcing ourselves to eat cold tuna salads.
A nice healthy warm winter meal is soup. And, what goes so nicely with soup...bread! Lots of the breads that you buy in the shops are made with refined flours. This recipe is a flourless bread loaf recipe, packed full of whole-food ingredients, so you can enjoy a bit of bread dipped into your soup, without compromising your health!
Flourless bread loaf
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients:
1 cup / 135g sunflower seeds
½ cup / 90g flax seeds
½ cup / 65g hazelnuts or almonds
1 ½ cups / 145g rolled oats
2 Tbsp. chia seeds
4 Tbsp. psyllium seed husks (3 Tbsp. if using psyllium husk powder)
1 tsp. fine grain sea salt (add ½ tsp. if using coarse salt)
1 Tbsp. honey (for sugar-free diets, use a pinch of stevia)
3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil
1 ½ cups / 350ml water
Directions:
1. Combine all dry ingredients, stirring well.
2. Whisk honey, oil and water together in a measuring cup.
3. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix very well until everything is completely soaked and dough becomes very thick (if the dough is too thick to stir, add one or two teaspoons of water until the dough is manageable).
4. Put the dough in a loaf pan. Smooth out the top with the back of a spoon. Let sit out on the counter for at least 2 hours, or all day or overnight. To ensure the dough is ready, it should retain its shape even when you pull the sides of the loaf pan away from it it.
5. Preheat oven to 175°C.
6. Place loaf pan in the oven on the middle rack, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan, place it upside down directly on the rack and bake for another 30-40 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool completely before slicing.
7. Store bread in a tightly sealed container for up to five days.
Notes:
- This recipe was originally found at the website ‘My New roots’ and some adaptations were made from the original recipe.
- This recipe is flourless, but it may not be suitable for those with celiac disease, as it contains oats. Some people with celiac disease cannot tolerate oats, while others can.
- This recipe makes a small, dense loaf...it does no really rise, so don’t expect a puffy soft loaf. But, it really is delicious.
- The loaf freezes well. I sliced mine, and packaged them 2 slices at a time in cling wrap and put it in the freezer. When I feel like some, I just take out a pack of 2 slices, remove cling wrap, and pop it in the toaster from frozen.