Review of Morpeth buckwheat sourdough bread plus a quick recipe.
It’s been a long time since I was able to eat any bread. Let alone a good sourdough bread. How I’ve missed it! I recently found this bread at my local market in Sydney and I must say — it’s a winner. It’s not sliced, so I have sliced it into fairly thick pieces then eaten it toasted with some organic butter. I love it for breakfast.
An easy recipe is:
- take two slices and toast them
- spread with with half an avocado
- top with sliced tomato
- finish off with a big grind of Himalayan sea salt and pepper
The only thing that I don’t like is they state in the ingredients label that they use gluten free flour as well as the buckwheat, but do not advise what that gluten free flour is made of. I like to know exactly what is in everything! All up though, it’s nice to have this occasionally for breakfast — and when I have it I stay satisfied for many hours afterwards.
What is buckwheat?
Buckwheat is is neither a grain or a wheat, but a seed — commonly called a grain-like seed. It is high in protein, bio-available nutrients, soluble fiber and low GI. Buckwheat flour is a great substitute to use to make normal recipes gluten free.
So what is sourdough?
Sourdough is more digestible and nutritious than standard loaves. Sourdough is the ancient leavened bread-making process. The fermentation process is long and slow, which breaks down the starches making it easier to digest. It also renders the gluten in flour more digestible and less likely to cause food intolerance, this is true for both sourdough breads containing gluten and those that don’t. An authentic sourdough bread is baker’s yeast-free, preservative-free and also is free from any additives. It should only contain flour, water and salt. There is also some research that shows it can be beneficial for managing blood sugar.
Morpeth advise that sourdough bread preparation improves nutrition by:
- pre-digesting starches, making the bread more easily digestible
- lowering insulin response/improving glucose tolerance
- protecting Vitamin B1 from the damage of the heat of baking
- breaking down gluten, which may result in a bread that gluten-sensitive people can eat
- activating phytase to dissolve the phytates, thus freeing up minerals such as:
- zinc
- iron
- magnesium
- copper
- phosphorus
