I love Tiger Nut Milk or Horchata. It is sweet and creamy and full of nutrients: Tiger Nuts (tubers really, not nuts) contain protein, fibre, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, multiple vitamins and oleic acid, they’re also a prebiotic which makes for a healthy gut environment in which probiotics can grow (see here for recipe).
We usually make Horchata with unpeeled Organic Tiger Nuts from The Tiger Nut Company* and use the resulting pulp residue to make raw cookies or energy balls, but the pulp can be a bit coarse from the skins. So I was delighted when Ani recently announced their new product: Naked (ie peeled) Organic Tiger Nuts!
I couldn’t wait to try them and to see if they would make as good quality milk as the original Organic Unpeeled and also it would be interesting to see if the pulp was any finer or more versatile.
I used the same recipe for both milks, omitting the vanilla extract I usually add, because I wanted to taste them raw.
Here is the result:
On the left is the original unpeeled milk, on the right the new Naked milk. (Stored in my glass Grip and Go bottles).
Firstly, I noticed that the Naked made roughly 100mls less milk than the unpeeled – about 600mls compared with about 700mls – hardly anything (although it looks in the photos as if it’s the other way round, there was some left over that I put into small jars).
Second, the pulp from the Naked was lighter and slightly finer.
On the left is the unpeeled, on the right the Naked and for comparison the Chufa de Valencia Tiger Nut Flour.
The milk from the Naked was infinitesimally thinner, but only a regular drinker could notice the difference, and only by tasting one after the other and really thinking about it! My husband couldn’t tell. It was still sweet and creamy.
The pulp from the Naked was much better for baking, easy to use with a much finer texture. We made some Dipped Tiger Nut, Mango & Orange Fruit Treats, which I’ll post later in the week, they were smooth and not at all gritty.
My son asked if there would be a loss of nutrients, which is a fair point, but the Naked still retain a little of their skin and if it it makes the difference between discarding the pulp because it is too coarse or using the finer Naked pulp, I’d say it balances out pretty well.
All in all, I am delighted with this new product and highly recommend it!
Ps There are other Tiger Nut Recipes here
Copyright: Chris McGowan
I haven’t had home-baked scones – or any scones for that matter – for soooo long! Many moons ago, before I became vegan, gluten-free, juicer and raw foodie, they were my favourite comfort food. They were so quick and easy to make.
Sift the flour, baking powder, ground almonds and coconut palm sugar into a large bowl.
Gently roll it to out to just over an inch in depth. They won’t rise much so bear that in mind.
Anyone who is gluten-free for whatever reason will know how difficult it is to find a commercial gluten-free loaf that doesn’t look and taste like cardboard and is, if you’re lucky, only ‘good’ for toasting. It lasts a day and then breaks up. It has no flavour other than of additives, and no texture – and if you look at the list of ingredients, you may as well be reading a chemistry experiment!
There are times as an ex-cheese addict when you just have to have something vaguely resembling a cheese sauce or dip, with pasta or crudités or sweet potato chips for instance. Here is a simple basic recipe that you can adapt with your own flavours, making it more spicy if you like eg with chilli flakes, cayenne, garlic and so on. You can make it as thick or as thin as you want, depending whether you prefer a pouring sauce or a thicker dip.
This was born on a very chilly, wet and windy July day a few days after I had finished a 7 day juice challenge. I had been having salads since, and this was my first fully cooked meal. I wanted something light but warming – it didn’t feel at all like summer – but we had a lot of summer vegetables and fruit so we decided to combine a little of both with some filling and nourishing basmati rice and served with large chestnut mushrooms lightly stir-fried with crushed garlic and tamari.
No really.
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
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