New Grains in 7Grain Menu: Spelt

Good news everyone! Summer holidays are over and we are back with new exiting recipes. We decided to expand our menu and start a new line of products that will be suitable for people who are sensitive to wheat and gluten.

Today I am going to tell you about spelt the ancient grain, wheat's distant cousin, the first that was grown by farmers as long as 5000 years BC. Spelt was originally growing in Middle East and was used by Greeks and Romans. Just recently spelt was reintroduced to US consumers.

What's so cool about spelt? It's an unusual grain because it retains all of its nutritional value in the kernel. Spelt has a tough hull, or husk, that makes it more difficult to process than modern wheat varieties. Its husk protects it from pollutants and insects and usually allows growers to avoid using pesticides.
Even after processing spelt contains high levels of proteins and carbohydrates. Spelt wasn't modified and still has many of the original traits.

Spelt is a good source of dietary fiber, thiamin, niacin, iron and potassium. Easily digested. It contains less gluten than wheat and many wheat sensitive people can tolerate it. Easily substituted for wheat in recipes. In the old times a bowl of boiled spelt was inexpensive but nutritional food for workers. It's even mentioned in great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's The Tale of the Priest and HisWorkman Balda. The bowl of spelt cereal was his payment for a day's work.

In 7 Grain we use only certified organic wholegrain spelt flour that mill ourselves.

We developed couple delicious recipes: Spelt Pizza Crust and Spelt Tortillas.

As always we tried our new recipes on our teenage children. They loved it saying that spelt products have a delicious, light and nutty flavor. At the same time it's filling without being heavy on your stomach. One usual size wrap made out of spelt tortilla was enough in comparison to 2 wraps out of white wheat flour that kids usually ate.

Nutrition Facts on Organic Spelt Berries 

Serving Size: 1/4 cup (43 g)

Nutrient Amount % DV

Calories 140  

Calories from Fat 10   

Total Fat 1 g 2%   

Sodium 0 mg

Total Carbohydrate 31 g 10%   

Dietary Fiber 3g 11%   

Protein 6 g   

Iron 10%

Next week at the Farmer's Market ask for Spelt Pizza Crust or Spelt Tortilla.