Flaxseed is easy to add to your everyday diet, and it is so good for you! Flaxseed used to be sold in health food stores or found in a small health food section of the grocery store, and now it is right up there with whole wheat, rye, and other specialty flours and grains in the regular shopping aisle.
When you buy flaxseed, it should be “Milled Flaxseed”. Whole flaxseed has a very hard seed coat that will pass unchanged through your digestive system, taking health benefits along with it. Milled flaxseed is crushed so the whole seed is available for your body to use, including alpha-linoleic acid (one of the Omega-3’s) and the rich fiber.
Flaxseed does not have a particularly long shelf life. It should be milled (ground) and packed immediately into the container you purchase it in. Milled flaxseed should be vacuum sealed and placed in light-proof outer packaging to maintain freshness. As soon as you open the vacuum sealed part of the package and oxygen contacts the crushed seed, the quality begins to decrease. Buy flaxseed a small quantity at a time and use it up; don’t stockpile milled flaxseed. You may, however, store whole flaxseed for long periods and grind your own in a coffee grinder or processor just before use. Milled flaxseed has a shelf life of about 128 days. If it is stored much longer than that, it may turn rancid. Don’t eat rancid flaxseed; you’ll recognize it because it will have a stale, musty odor. Store your flaxseed at room temperature and not in the freezer.
Use Flaxseed as a substitute for fats or eggs in your regular recipes.
A general rule is to use 3 Tablespoons of milled flaxseed for 1 Tablespoon fat in regular recipes. The alpha-linoleic acid (Omega-3) replaces fat or oil in the recipe.
Replace an egg with one Tablespoon milled flaxseed plus 3 Tablespoons water. Sometimes I use buttermilk or other liquid to make the egg ratio; it depends on the recipe.
These substitutions are a good place to start. You may need to experiment with individual recipes until you get the right ratios.
Here are some ways to use flaxseed in your cooking without really trying.
Stir some milled flaxseed into casseroles, meat loaf, soups and stews. Mix it in with poultry dressing. Sprinkle a little inside a burrito or on a sandwich. Flaxseed doesn’t have overpowering taste so it won’t alter the flavor of your foods.
Pre-mix milled flaxseed with whole grain flour. Sift or stir to blend, and store in an airtight container on a shelf. Use a ratio of 2 Tablespoons milled flaxseed per one cup of flour. A higher ratio may need a recipe adjustment to maintain the consistency during baking. Sift milled flaxseed in with white flour at the same ratio; you will see the flaxseed specks and the flour will look and bake like whole wheat. Added to whole grain flour you won’t see it at all. Use these flour pre-mixes as you would use any whole grain baking flour.
Add milled flaxseed to oats as they cook. Sprinkle it on any breakfast cereal. Mix some in yogurt. Add it to smoothies or stir some into juice. It is delicious in peanut butter cookies, or any cookies for that matter! Just use your pre-mix flour in your favorite cookie recipe.
Make a delicious dessert topping. While it is not completely fat free, it is much lower than most crumb toppings of this kind and it has some good-for-you ingredients. Mix together in a large bowl 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour with 5 Tablespoons of milled flaxseed, 1/2 cup organic brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon and some freshly grated nutmeg to taste. Cut in 1/3 cup softened butter until texture is like fine crumbs. Stir in 1/2 cup ground nuts and 1/2 cup rolled oats. Use this topping as is on apple crisp or as topping on unbaked pies. You can also toast the crumblies on a flat sheet in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, cool and break apart if necessary. Store in an airtight container. Mix the toasted crumblies with dried fruit to make granola/trail mix, or on ice cream or pudding, as a topping when you bake batter breads, or anywhere you like nuts or crunchy sprinkles.
Make a sugar-free version of the crumblies to use on salads instead of croutons.
Depending on humidity, how much oil is in the nuts you use and other factors, you may need to adjust the amount of butter in the crumbly recipe so the particles cling together a little bit.
Sources and Further Reading:
http://www.flaxseedshop.com/content/Milled-Flax-Seed.asp
http://www.hodgsonmill.com/june-2008-featured-product/
