Monday 25 February 2013

Grain discovery series - Teff

Teff is the tiniest of all the seeds I've encountered! These little guys are even smaller than chia seeds, if you're familiar with those (and if you're not, highly recommend you get acquainted!). Teff is a popular grain from north eastern Africa. It is rich in calcium, iron, protein and thiamine.

Unlike oats which I often grind myself at home to make oat flour, teff grains are farrrr too tiny for the average home coffee grinder or food processor to pulverize. So what's it good for? It has a deep, earthy, hazelnuty taste to it and, if you like the texture of cream of wheat, you'll like it as a breakfast cereal. To do that toast the seeds in a pan until they're fragrant and add to a pot of boiling water (you should use 3:1 water to teff, ie. 3 cups water to 1 cup teff).

Honey fig teff breakfast cereal:
1 cup teff
2.5 cups water
0.5 cup vanilla almond milk
2 tbsp raw honey
3 dried figs coarsely chopped
0.5 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch salt

Put water/almond milk and salt in a pot to boil. Toast teff seeds in a pan, stirring continuously until fragrant. Add toasted teff to pot of boiling water/almond milk. When the mixture is almost at your desired consistency add the honey, figs, cinnamon and nutmeg. Continue to let simmer until it reaches desired consistency. Serve drizzled with honey, almond milk and walnuts. I usually make enough at once for several servings and then reheat/reconstitute with boiling water.

Bon appétit!
Talia

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