Chia Power

Mango Avocado Salad With Lime Chia Seed Dressing

See this terrific recipe at Foods For Long Life

I really like her technique for making chia seed dressing:

1 teaspoon raw, chia seeds
2 tablespoons water
1 packed tablespoon of fresh, chopped, cilantro
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
A few shakes of black pepper

Early in the day, put 1 teaspoon of chia seeds into 2 tablespoons of water. Let sit for several hours until it forms a gel. Then combine this chia gel with the cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Of course, if you're like me, you already have a jar of chia gel in your fridge, so it's that much easier.

UPDATED, August 23, 2009. This recipe is just one of many chia recipes to be found at Foods for Long Life. Congrats to Dr. Joanne Williams for creating such a sensible, informative website AND for having 200 heads of harvested garlic in her cellar!!

Mom's Chia - Banana Bread

1/2 cup shortening (Note: Mom uses Crisco, but I prefer real butter.)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

Cream together

Beat in 2 large eggs, 1 tsp. salt, 3 ripe bananas.

Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder. Add 1/2 cup ground chia seed then blend into batter.

The addition of 1/2 cup chopped dates and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts folded in last.

I bake loaves in small pans greased and floured  7"x3"x2" and bake 350 degrees for 40 min. Try  not to over-bake loaves and dry them out.

Fogbuster!

Mike from Gluten Free Blog drinks this every morning for breakfast!

My Chia Peanut Butter Cookies

      
Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
   1      c             brown sugar
   1      c             sugar
   1      c             butter
   2                     eggs
   1      tsp          vanilla
   1      c             peanut butter
   2 1/2  c           flour
   1      tsp          baking soda
   1/2  tsp           salt
   1/2  cup          chia seeds -- ground

Beat butter and sugars together until smooth and somewhat fluffy
Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and peanut butter
Mix the flour, ground chia, salt, and baking soda together
Add these dry ingredients to the batter, and mix only until uniform

Roll into walnut size balls and flatten with back of a fork
Bake 375 for 12 min

Makes 5 dozen cookies, each with 105 calories, 1 gram of fiber and 1 gram of omega-3 fatty acids!

Chia Dukkah

Dukkah..... is an Egyptian blend of ground nuts and spices  for dipping.

This recipe is from The Chia Company, an Australian chia grower and distributor. 

Tropical Fruit with Sweet Dukkah

Ingredients
70g slivered almonds 40 g hazelnuts 30g shredded coconut 20g sesame seeds 1 tablespoon white chia seeds 1 teaspoon cinnamon	3/4 teaspoon ground ginger 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom 2 ½ tablespoons brown sugar Greek style yoghurt or pure cream Mixed tropical fruits, cut into dipping shapes
Method
1. Place almonds and hazelnuts in a non-stick frypan and toast for 2-3 minutes over a medium heat. Add coconut, sesame seeds, chia seeds, and spices. Continue to cook until all ingredients are golden and dukkah is fragrant. Stir frequently. Remove from heat and allow to cool. 2. Place cooled mixture and sugar in a food processor and process until chopped well. 3. Serve dukkah with a bowl of yoghurt or cream and tropical fruits. Dip fruit first into the yoghurt or cream and then into the dukkah. Makes 1 1/2 cups

Here's  another recipe. Healthy Party Food. Also available at Trader Joe's, but w/o chia seed.

Tarahumara Living

Melissa's cute video is informative and has a couple of good chia drink recipes and includes a great Tarahumara cartoon. It's part of a series that she made for a college project, I believe.

But it has one error. Her  mother remembers drinking a chia beverage in Vietnam many years ago (at 1:25), but that drink was almost certainly made from basil seeds, not chia seeds.

Strawberry, Basil and Chia Seed Mojito

Created for you by the girls at Fashionably Bombed. (I haven't tried it.)

Chia Seed Salad Dressing

When you dress a salad with oil and vinegar, which do you add first?

The oil, of course! Because it clings to the leaves. Then you toss in the vinegar, salt, and seasonings, which stick to the oil, so now, every leaf of lettuce is coated with flavor...salty, sour, yummy!

Fat-free (low calorie) salad dressings have no oil, but instead contain ingredients like Guar Gum and Xanthan Gum, which increase the viscosity of the dressing. Without these thickeners, the vinegar, salt and seasonings would run right off the greens and would pool up in the bottom of the salad bowl. Oh No!

So HERE is the best use of chia seeds ever! Dress your salads with them!

Mix equal parts of chia gel and balsamic vinegar. Add salt and seasonings to taste (fresh garlic, anyone?) Let it sit about 5 minutes so the chia gel can absorb all the flavors. Then pour over your salad and toss it!

The flavored chia gel adheres to each leaf and the salad is delicious and full of omega-3-fatty acids and fiber!

Good for you!

Clafouti Redux

Back in 2007, we  discovered a recipe for Chia Clafouti posted by Hanna Kaminsky.

(NOTE: Clafouti is a French fruity dessert, based on an eggy custard. Julia Child's recipe is posted here.)

Hanna's clafouti substituted chia gel for the eggs, resulting in a dessert suitable for a vegan diet.

In our controlled experiment, we made two clafoutis, #1: a traditional clafouti with eggs, and #2: the same recipe with chia gel replacing the eggs.

Our recipe(s)
Prepare the fruit: Mix 1 melted stick of real butter and 1/2 cup of sugar, pour it over 6 peeled and sliced apples and bake in a shallow pan at 375 for 25 minutes. Soak some raisins in dark rum. Yum.

Prepare the batter(s): Traditional clafouti-Beat 3 eggs with 1/2 cup sugar. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 cup white flour and 1/2 cup milk. For the Chia Gel Clafouti make the same batter using 3 ounces of chia gel instead of the eggs.

Remove the fruit from the oven, stir in the raisins. Pour the batter over the apples and return to the oven for 25 minutes until the batter is golden brown.

The result:
Both desserts were delicious, warm, sweet and satisfying. We enjoyed them equally.
However, only clafouti #1 puffed up, golden, rich and eggy. This was the real "clafouti." 

The other dessert, the one with chia seed, reminded us a little of oatmeal, it was mushy, heavy and a rather depressing shade of gray. We think there are better ways to use chia seeds.

In these photos, the chia gel clafouti is on the right:

Our conclusion: Chia is delicious, but you can't make a real clafouti (nor an omelette nor a souffle) without breaking some eggs.

(Edited and re-posted from 5/4/2008)

Chia Fresca Video

Tarahumara Pinole and Chia Recipe

Matt, of No Meat Athlete, has adopted much of the diet of the Tarahumara people, the super-marathon runners of Sierra Madre who popularized chia eating among runners, a few years ago. (Read Born to Run.)

You may not be ready to give up meat, but a nice bowl of pinole and chia might be a good way to start your day.

Tarahumara Pinole and Chia Recipe.

The book is available here: https://pinolerecipes.com/

Some Yucky Chia Recipes, Collected from Here and There

Chia Milk by Sheltie Girl from Westchester, NY

 

This Was Once My Favorite Chia Seed Information Website

Back in 2010, I admired the research and graphic design of Emily Morris for a company named "MySeeds." Her articles were informative, factual, and entertaining.

That was almost 15 years ago, and Emily must have moved on. But her content is available here. And it seems really good to me.

If you have ordered from this company recently, please let me know how it worked out for you.

 

Thanks.

Chia for Breakfast

 

On a cold winter day, there is no better breakfast that chia oatmeal. Here's how I make mine: Mix 1/2 cup instant rolled oats, 1 cup of water, and 1/4 ounce (heaping teaspoon) of chia seeds in a 4 cup glass measuring cup: microwave on high for about 2 minutes, until it's cooked. (If the cup isn't deep enough, the oatmeal will overflow and make a huge mess in your microwave.)

Serve with 1/4 cup skim milk and decorate with 1 Tablespoon each of real maple syrup, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds.

Makes one serving: 325 Calories, 7g fat (nearly 2g of omega-3 fatty acids!) 7 g protein, 10 g fiber.

Chia Corn Chowder

You could just sprinkle chia seeds in any old can of chowder, but here's what I did:

1/2 cup chopped veggies (onion, red pepper, celery) sauteed in 1 tsp butter
stir in 1 tbsp flour
add 1 cup low fat milk and continue to simmer
whisk in 1/2 tsp chia seed
sprinkle in salt and cumin to taste
bring to a simmer, stirring frequently
stir in 2 tbsp frozen corn and simmer 2 more minutes
serve with chopped cilantro or other herbs.