Nut Meal Substitutions

[CateK]

One of my sons is deathly allergic to nuts and peanuts. So many of the gluten free recipes call for nuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts or peanuts I was getting discouraged that we would ever eat pie crusts, cookies and breads again.

Then I experiemented a little and discovered that a one to one ratio (1 cup of each) raw sunflower seeds and raw pumpkin seeds put through a good buzz in the food processor makes a great substitute for most of the nut meals called for in recipes. If the recipe, for instance, calls for 1/4 cup of almond meal, I substitute a 1/4 cup of my seed meal.

One seed or the other just doesn't quite work. More sunflower to pumpkin makes it taste a little more peanutty.

If the recipe calls for roasted nuts, I toss the meal in a dry iron skillet for a few minutes on high heat, stirring constantly until it smells roasted.

I am going to experiment a bit further by adding some flax seed and or sesame seed or poppy seed for a bit more fiber.

[lbsteenwyk]

Thanks for this great idea! We don't have nut allergies, but I am always trying to make breads, muffins, etc more nutritious. Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are a great source of several nutrients, so even for those without allergies, this is a nice idea for adding more nutrition to those flour mixes that have so much corn starch and tapioca starch in them.

[tarnalberry]

How about flax meal or hemp seeds? Both good sources of protein and omega-3's.