Spelt for my meals

I'm just guessing, but I should think it would be the same.

What I can tell you for sure is that spelt will not make your blood sugar spike so readily as ordinary wholemeal wheat.

And I mean this: so long as you don't eat too much in one go, then not only will your blood sugar not spike upwards initially, but it will tend not to subsequently spike DOWNWARDS either.

Accordingly, if you eat it steadily throughout the day, then it will have a moderating effect on your blood sugar, and you will be less likely to be caught out by a hypo than if you were eating ordinary wholemeal wheat.

The effect, I have found, is the same as eating rye bread. (That's any kind of 100% rye bread; and I eat around 220g per day, though none after 4pm - or my blood sugar would rise in the evening and overnight.) But spelt is an awful lot more expensive than rye.

I buy a sourdough wholegrain rye loaf and one leaven spelt loaf every week. The rye is slighly kinder but the spelt isn't at all bad. The problem with many bakers is that you just get a load of piffle from them. Real rye loaves and spelt loaves are heavy and fairly solid. They don't produce much gluten and don't rise easily. Anyone who says that their light and airy loaf is 100% wholegrain spelt or rye is not telling the truth. I even had some joker telling me that his loaf, which was like any brown dyed white flour supermarket loaf was 'sourdough black polish bread'. "What a tale". The spelt loaves I get are £2.20 for a large one and £1.30 for a small one.

I find that the best bread though is Lidl's home bake mixes. They do two wholegrain rye and wholegrain wheat mixes and they make tasty and fairly solid breads. I generally double or even triple the proving times and I add things like carraway seeds which I roast first.

I also make my own wholewheat flatbreads (roti). I asked an indian chef why I could not get them more than six inches in diameter. She told me that was the correct size because by using just wholewheat and water, you weren't going to get the elasticity to make them bigger. She said that the big ones you get in restaurants are due to additives and different flours.

She also introduced me to a type of spicy cake called Dhokla. It is made primarily from chickpea flour which is very low GI and it has a little bit of semolina, which is coarsely ground durum wheat. It gets its rise from fementing it with a little yoghurt, pretty much the same process as sourdough or leavens.

Making some Dhokla is my weekend project!




If yu are interested in good quality breads:

A wholegrain of truth

Real Bread Finder

Bread Matters

Mine is in a book, but there are many on google and many on youtube.

This dhokla recipe is similar to mine in the book. It uses all chickpea flour whereas mine is mostly chickpea flour (also called gram flour) and about 15% semolina. I substitute the sugar with Truvia and only 1/3rd of the amount in the recipe. The spices used can vary. In fact, every recipe is different. If you look at various videos and recipes, you'll see all sorts, things like smoked paprika, or cardamon seed. If you don't have any, the asafetida isn't necessary. Neither is the sugar really. Basically you make slightly sweet or hot spicy versions. You eat it with chutneys so, depends what you like, lime or mango. I have a hot chili garlic chutney. Also works with a quick and simple raita - low fat yohurt with a small amuont of mint sauce stirred in. I also like hot wax banana chilli peppers with it. Whereas this recipe calls for the mixture to stand for 4 hours, mine stands for 12 hours. It just fermnts more and gives it a sharper tangier taste.

For some reason, I am never hungry when I prepare food.

Have fun and enjoy. I'll let you know what mine comes out like. I need to go get some fresh ginger for it first.

I enjoyed it and it did not spike me. because it is mainly chick pea flour, it does not rise easily and using a natural yoghurt to ferment didn't give it much of a rise. I did whisk it before I steamed it and it did get some air and the whole thing did rise a little but, it still had the texture of say a dumpling. many of the youtube recipes put baking powder in.

Having a more solid texture is OK depending on what you add to it. I had ginger and chilli in the mix and had mustard seeds fried in a little oil which I poured on top. It was quite moorish and still tasted good the next day, but it was getting a bit boring. My wife liked it though she wasn't keen on the mustard seeds. She would have preferred hers with added ginger and a custard or treacle sauce! It would certainly make a good based for a pudding.

As a savoury snack, I'll add more ginger or chilli and try it with some different seeds. It will ne nice with lime pickle I should imagine. I guess with some spicy garlic mushrooms, it would be a nice starter.

You could cheat, not add the spicy stuff but add cinnamon and a sweetener like truvia and it would be some sort of sweet. Maye, I don't know yet, but adding some cheese and fried onion would make it taste like a flan. Have to give that a try sometime.