Features, production and photos of chickpea flour. Energy value, composition, benefits and harms of a food product for the body. Cooking and home use.
Chickpea flour, or besan, is a food product made from a legume, more commonly called chickpeas or mutton peas. The grinding can be coarser or finer, the structure is dispersed, the color is yellowish or grayish, the taste is delicate, nutty, sweetish. Chickpea flour dishes are popular in Turkish, Indian and Israeli cuisine. The product is also used for medicinal purposes.
How to make chickpea flour?
In the farms of countries that grow chickpeas as a food crop, grinding is still carried out in mills with stone millstones. The consistency may be uneven, but the characteristic flavor is fully revealed.
Large flour mills make chickpea flour like wheat flour. That is, the feedstock is sorted, dried, and if necessary, additional moistening and heating are carried out. Then it is preliminarily crushed and only then ground. To grind the endosperm and ensure homogeneity, the operation is repeated many times. All processes are automated, including packaging.
It is important to observe the storage conditions for chickpea flour: with an increase in humidity, lumps and mold appear, the food product must be disposed of.
There are many ways to make chickpea flour at home. The technology depends on further use:
- Savory dishes … Chickpeas are washed, dried and ground in a special hand mill or coffee grinder, and then sieved through a sieve. It must be thoroughly washed from coffee to avoid the appearance of aftertaste. The taste of such flour is "herbal" and resembles ordinary raw peas.
- To add to baked goods … The beans are dried and calcined in an oven preheated to 80-90 ° C for 10 minutes. They become brittle and the final product is homogeneous. Grinding is carried out in the same way as in the recipe for making chickpea flour No. 1; a sieve must be used. Such flour already acquires a characteristic nutty and sweetness, suitable for cooking cereals and baking.
- Universal use … Beans are soaked in the evening. The proportions of water and chickpeas: 6 to 1. After 10 hours, rinse, refill with clean water, boil for 1.5-2 hours, until the beans begin to fall apart when pressed. The foam is removed. The finished grains are dried in the oven, laid out in one layer on a baking sheet covered with parchment, at a temperature of 80 ° C, opening the door slightly. Stir to dry evenly. Then it is ground in a coffee grinder, dried again, covering the baking sheet with parchment, for about 2 hours. Then you can grind again, and only then sift. Large particles are re-processed. This method of making chickpea flour at home is the most laborious, but it helps to obtain a high-quality product. The dough rises quickly from it, and the pastries become tender, airy, with a nutty flavor.
See also the peculiarities of making tempura flour.
Composition and calorie content of chickpea flour
Besan is an excellent addition to therapeutic and weight loss diets. The content of vitamins and minerals does not depend on the way the product is made.
The calorie content of chickpea flour is 360-387 kcal per 100 g, of which:
- Proteins - 22.4 g;
- Fat - 6.7 g;
- Carbohydrates - 47 g;
- Dietary fiber - 10.8 g;
- Water - 10.28 g;
- Ash - 2.82 g.
Vitamins per 100 g:
- Vitamin A - 2 mcg;
- Beta Carotene - 0.025 mg;
- Vitamin B1, thiamine - 0.486 mg;
- Vitamin B2, riboflavin - 0.106 mg;
- Vitamin B5, pantothenic acid - 0.606 mg;
- Vitamin B6, pyridoxine - 0.492 mg;
- Vitamin B9, folate - 437 mcg;
- Vitamin E, alpha tocopherol - 0.83 mg;
- Vitamin K, phylloquinone - 9.1 μg;
- Vitamin PP - 1.762 mg.
Macronutrients per 100 g:
- Potassium, K - 846 mg;
- Calcium, Ca - 45 mg;
- Magnesium, Mg - 166 mg;
- Sodium, Na - 64 mg;
- Phosphorus, P - 318 mg.
Microelements per 100 g:
- Iron, Fe - 4.86 mg;
- Manganese, Mn - 1.6 mg;
- Copper, Cu - 912 μg;
- Selenium, Se - 8.3 μg;
- Zinc, Zn - 2.81 mg.
But the composition of chickpea flour is not limited to the above nutrients. It contains phytosterols, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, purine compounds. Due to the high amount of amino acids important for the body (tryptophan, lysine, leucine and methionine), plant proteins act in a similar way to these substances isolated from animal products.
Another feature of besan is the absence of gluten. This complex protein compound increases the permeability of the intestinal mucosa, which leads to impaired absorption of nutrients. This property has ensured the popularity of the product, which helps people with plant protein intolerance to expand the menu.
The benefits of chickpea flour
The beneficial effect of besan on the body was noticed by ancient healers. They advised people suffering from flatulence and anemia (called pale sickness) to give up wheat baked goods and switch to chickpeas.
The benefits of chickpea flour
- Due to the high content of dietary fiber, it absorbs toxins coming from food and traveling in the intestinal lumen, eliminates fermentation and putrefactive processes, accelerates peristalsis and relieves constipation.
- It stabilizes heart contractions, strengthens and increases the tone of the walls of blood vessels, dissolves cholesterol plaques in the lumen.
- Cleans the liver and slows down degenerative changes in the organ.
- Stops the development of anemia and atherosclerosis.
- Normalizes insulin production, lowers blood glucose levels and prevents the development of diabetes. It is especially useful to introduce this product into the diet for diabetes of the 2nd degree.
- Reduces the frequency of asthmatic attacks and helps to get rid of the tearing cough in whooping cough and chronic bronchitis.
- Increases male potency and eliminates sexual impotence.
- Suspends degenerative changes in the visual system.
- Replenishes the energy reserve and stimulates the protective functions of the body.
It is useful to consume ground beans for obesity. The cleansing action accelerates weight loss and allows you to achieve the desired result faster with physical activity.
Besan in the diet accelerates recovery in infectious dermatitis, and in chronic dermatitis, it reduces the frequency of relapses. The regenerative properties of the epithelium and mucous membranes are increased. Topical application of the product will help eliminate hematoma, improve complexion and heal acne.
Research is underway on the effect of a diet with meals made from chickpea flour on the rate of spread of oncological processes in the body. It has been officially proven that when they switched to a gluten-free diet, the growth of rectal tumors slowed down in subjects from the control group, and in 73% of patients who received a daily chowder with bean flour, the production of atypical cells stopped.
