Now let’s go over to the different gelatinizers, binders & starches.
Apple-pectin: This gelatinizer is perfect gelatinize jams. Per 1 kg fruits use ca 12-15g of apple-pectin. You can buy it in most supermarkets, on the internet, in drug stores and of course in natural food stores.
Agar-Agar: Agar-agar is a great herbal gelatinizer and a perfect substitute for animal gelatin. 1 tea spoon of agar agar equals 6 gelatin leafs and it’s perfect to thicken jams or warm sauces. However, it’s important to mention that agar agar only gelatinizes as soon as it cooled down. So please don’t be surprised of it not gelatinizing while warm. For that reason, agar agar is not very suited for cold dishes. Agar agar is available at drug stores, well equipped supermarkets, on the internet and in natural food stores.
Lota: A pure gelatin wonder! I love to work with it even though it’s not quite easy. If you would like to work with lota, you should buy a micro scale. I bought lota and the micro scales on Amazon. Lota is made out of red algae’s, it’s perfect for warm and cold dishes and I couldn’t imagine a professional kitchen without it
Tapioca-pearls: Tapioca is an herbal and tasteless starch, made out of the manioc root. Use these magical pearls to thicken your sauces, jams and deserts. For example: 250 ml of water equals 20-25g of these great pearls. Suitable for warm and cold dishes. Tapioca is available at natural food stores and on the internet.
Carob and guar seed flour: Further up you can find more information about “gluten free flours”. Carob seed flour is a herbal binder made out of the carob tree. You can use it for warm and cold dishes and even for ice cream. But you should never use more than 2g of it. For ice cream it’s even less! 0,5g.
Guar seed flour is a strong, herbal thickener. It is derived from the seeds of the guar tree and it’s suitable for all liquid recipes. You can easily bind jams, ice cream and soups and in addition this flour adds a soft consistency to your pastries. Carob flour and guar seed flour is available at natural food stores, in some drug stores, on the internet and in well equipped supermarkets.
Chia seeds: You can grind this amazing power food into flour, you can let it soak within water until it becomes a gel, use it as an egg substitute or simply enjoy this little seeds just pure as they are. If you decide to enjoy them pure, please add lots of water since they will start to soak a lot in your tummy.;-) Thicken your smoothies, soups, sauces, marinades and compote with them. As earlier mentioned you can use the chia seeds as an excellent egg substitute for pancakes, pastries, waffles or bread. Find out more about this topic further below in the category: Egg-substitutes. You can buy chia seeds in all health food shops, natural food shops, well equipped supermarkets and drug stores.
Fiber Husk: I LOVE IT! Fiber husks are rich in fiber and the seeds or the powder serve as a great soaking ingredient which holds everything together. I mainly use fiber husks for my breads or other pastries. The pastries become noticeably juicier, they don’t crumble that much and they hold my pastries together. 500g gluten free flour equals 2-3 tablespoons of fiber husks. You can buy fiber husk in all health food shops, natural food shops, on the internet and in drug stores.
Xanthan Gum: Is a very reliable, perfectly working binder. Use it for cakes, breads and other pastries. It will add stability, volume and elasticity to your pastries. In addition, you can use it to thicken your jams, soups, sauces, deserts, ice cream and jellies. You can buy xanthan in all sorts of sizes in health food shops, natural food shops, well equipped supermarkets and drug stores.
Arrowroot flour: is a tasteless, herbal starch and thickener perfectly suited to thicken sauces, dip’s and jellies. Since arrowroot flour is not very cheap you can use corn or potato starch instead. Find out more about arrowroot flour in the category: Cereals and Nuts
Sticky rice flour: is an integral part of the Thai kitchen and it is often used to add more consistency to sauces, noodles, deserts and sweets because this flour is very rich in starch. Unfortunately, it is not very suitable for pastries. You will find it in Asia shops, natural food stores and on the internet.
Potato starch and potato flour: can both be used to either cook or to bake. It’s even possible to produce your own starch through a longer process. But to be honest, this process is too elaborate for me and since the starch and the flour is quite cheap it’s not really worth it. You’ll find the potato starch and the flour in some of my recipes such as: potato fritters, breads, bread rolls and cakes. I even use it to thicken some of my sauces. You can buy potato starch and the flour in health food shops, natural food shops, on the internet, in well equipped supermarkets and drug stores.
Corn starch: Corn starch is made out of corn seeds after a soaking and cleaning process. This starch is perfectly suitable for all kinds of baked sweets AND for all kinds of cooked dishes. I love corn starch and I usually work a lot with it because it’s so easy to make pastries, biscuit bases, cakes, pancakes, breads and Sunday rolls. It’s perfect to bind some sauces, spreads and dip’s as well. Actually, you can buy this starch in any supermarket. And if not just check on health food shops, natural food shops and drug stores.
Lucama-powder: or known as the: “gold of the Incas”. Lucama powder is made out of a sub tropical fruit, doesn’t really have a strong taste of it’s own and therefor perfect to sweeten different kinds of sweet dishes. In addition, it contains a high amount of carotene, calcium, vitamin B3, iron and niacin. If you are considering to use it as a thickener, please note that you should always mix it with some water to avoid nasty clots. Unfortunately, this special “gold” has one down side. It’s considerably more expensive than other sweeteners and therefore use it with caution. You can buy it on amazon and in some natural food stores.
However, you can certainly use all the other gluten free flours to thicken and bind as well. Again, please note that you should always mix it with some water to avoid the nasty clumps.
And here are some important information’s regarding yeast:
If you react to gluten, please consider that fresh yeast contains gluten as well. The yeast is normally made out of wheat or at least out of glutenous cereals. Whereas you can buy dried yeast from the company Fa. Rapunzel in every health food store or organic super market. Instead of baking with yeast you can certainly work with gluten free baking powder, baking soda, lemon juice, apple vinegar or gluten free sour dough. You can find related recipes among my bread recipes.
Let’s move on to the dairy products:
Cow milk is a very valuable drink. HOWEVER, this only applies to the calf and NOT to us humans!
We humans are not really capable of digesting animal milk! And apart from this, I am happy to renounce to antibiotics, hormones and pesticides anyway. Don’t worry about calcium and protein, it’s very easy to find a different supplier;-) At this point though, I am not going to dig into this topic any deeper since it would go beyond the scope! I am very sure that you will find the answers to most of your questions within.
And here are some cow milk alternatives for you.
Butter: Butter contains 0,9% protein and you can eat it, even if you eventually suffer a cow milk intolerance. If for any reason you don’t want to use butter, I can recommend a vegan butter instead. We don’t recommend margarine at all! As usual, please read the indication of ingredients very well! You can substitute butter in many recipes through unsaturated fats like olive oil, coconut oil or palm oil. Pound cakes for example, don’t really need any butter at all. Your cake will be juicy if you replace the stated quantities of fat through apple mush or 1-2 squashed bananas and some oil;-) You can buy vegan butter in all health food shops, natural supermarkets, on weekly markets and in well equipped super markets.
Cream: I can recommend you the following cream substitutes: Rice cuisine, almond, cashew, or coconut cream. If you like it and you tolerate it soy cream is a great alternative as well. You can buy all sorts of herbal creams in health food shops, natural food shops, well equipped supermarkets or drug stores. You can even make your own home made cream;-) If you are looking for the recipe just check my recipe overview.
Sour cream/ Creme fraiche: Just use the vegan substitute or produce your own cream. In addition, there is something called “Joya Crèmesse” from the company Joya. Please consider that vegan sour cream is usually made out of nuts and tofu. If you react to nuts and tofu please skip the vegan sour cream. You can find this substitute in in health food shops, natural food shops, well equipped supermarkets, drug stores, weekly markets and on the internet.
Milk: If you are looking for a vegan alternative I can recommend: Cashew, almond, hemp, sesame, pumpkin, coconut, rice, soy and oat. *if gluten free* In addition, according to your tolerance you can certainly use goat, sheep or mare milk. I personally like sheep milk very much since it is very mild and doesn’t taste like sheep at all;-)
Not a big fan of goat milk though;-( You can find some of the listed herbal drinks among my recipes abd apart from that you will be able to buy all sorts of flavors in all well equipped supermarkets, health food stores, organic food shops, on the internet, at drug stores or at Müller. Just be aware of the amount of sugar please;-(
Yoghurt: There’s a big selection of vegan yoghurt alternatives nowadays. You’ll be able to find soy, coconut, almond, cashew and many other yoghurts. By the way, I found a lupine yoghurt just recently in a natural food store in three different flavors and I must say they tasted quite good. And a few months ago, I ate a very mild goat yoghurt with fresh fruits. Unfortunately, I cant recall the company, but I know for sure that I bought it at Edeka. Really tasty! All the listed yoghurt alternatives above are available at health food stores, eco markets and meanwhile even in many common supermarkets, drug stores and sometimes at Müller Market.
And as always, I can only recommend to buy ecological products according to your possibilities!!
Sugar:
Well, we’ve finally made it to my favorite topic! Industrial sugar. Grrrr…;-( Gosh, I don’t know what to say. But I really have the feeling that every product I look at contains sugar. Even pet food contains sugar! Can somebody tell me why sugar needs to be in pet food? Honestly, do you know any animal on this planet that is looking for sugar?? What a big nonsense! Besides that, I am not into sugar at all, my personal opinion is that all these industrial sugars don’t just make us ill but fat and addicted as well! I’m very sorry but this topic makes me really upset! It’s not just about the well known white sugar but also about glucose, lactose, malt sugar, fructose, sucrose and glucose syrup. All these different sugar types are not better than the common white industrial sugar. It’s understandable that many of us are very confused;-( The same applies to aspartame, sweeteners and all the other completely unnecessary LIGHT products;-( There is a well known company that produces light products to drink and these are nothing else but artificially made products with additives and and sweeteners.
Light drinks contain mostly a combination of three different sweeteners: Acesulfame-K (E-number 950), aspartame (E-951), and cyclamate (E-952). I can only recommend to stay away from these products the best you can!
And here are some great industrial sugar alternatives for you:
Rice syrup, dates, date mush, coconut blossom sugar, cane sugar, xucker, birch sugar, sukrin, stevia, honey, maple syrup, coconut blossom syrup, palm sugar, pear syrup, agave syrup, beet syrup or Lucama powder. You can find all these substitutes in health food shops, organic food stores, on the internet “Amazon”, sometimes in well equipped super markets, drug stores and at Müller Market.
Eggs:
Eggs are usually the common go to when it comes to the preparation of cakes, noodles and pan cakes. To skip eggs is not that easy and that’s why I’ve prepared this substitute list for you:
10 examples of really good egg substitutes.
1.Chia gel
For example: Mix 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and 5 tablespoons of water, let it soak for 15-25 minutes and your egg substitute is ready.
2. Chickpea flour:
1 tablespoon of chickpea flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of water substitutes 1 egg.
3. Flax seed flour:
1 tablespoon of flax seed flour mixed with 3 tablespoons of water substitutes 1 egg. Perfect for pastries.
4. Bananas:
½ a banana substitutes 1 egg.
5. Bananas and apple mush:
½ a banana mixed with 2 tablespoons of apple mush substitutes 1 egg. You’ll be surprised how fluffy your cake will become.
6. Apple mush:
90g pure apple mush equals 1 big egg.
7. You can buy an instant egg substitute in organic supermarkets, health food stores and well equipped supermarkets. It’s a vegan egg substitute called No-Egg. This product is made out of potato starch, tapioca and its gluten free and vegan. You can use No-Egg for all sorts of dough except for biscuit dough. It simply doesn’t work.
8. Arrow root starch: Mix ½ a tablespoon of arrow root starch with 4 tablespoons of cold water and let it soak briefly. Substitutes 1 egg.
9. Mix 1 tablespoon of soy flour with some water. Substitutes 1 egg.
10. And if you don’t want it to be vegan or you react to chicken eggs, simply substitute them through quail eggs. 1 chicken egg equals 5 quail eggs. Of course there are ostrich eggs and duck eggs as well but these are really difficult to get. But maybe there is an ostrich farm near by where you can ask for them.
And now we will move on to the category:
Baker’s yeast / Fresh yeast:
Baker’s yeast is normally used to make the dough of bread and bread rolls fluffier and to make the pastries rise. However, many people react to yeast and therefore they are looking for a good substitute. You can find great yeast-free bread recipes on my blog. Since there are people that don’t react to yeast you can find recipes including yeast as well. And the yeast-free breads are either made with baking powder, baking soda, apple vinegar and / or lemon juice.
In addition, you can bake your bread with a gluten free baking ferment. Baking ferment is NO yeast but it lets your pastries rise just perfectly. However, this baking ferment is only available at natural food stores and only from the company: Biovegan!
Another good advice regarding yeast intolerance. Many vegan meals are made with yeast flakes! Therefor, please always study the ingredients list.
Brewer’s yeast:
UNFORTUNATELY, I have no good news regarding brewer’s yeast. There is no substitute! If you react to brewer’s yeast, I can only recommend to skip all products that contain brewer’s yeast for a while. Brewer’s yeast is not just in beer but in many other alcoholic drinks as well. SORRY;-(
Dry yeast / Baking powder:
Attention please! Not all sorts of baking powders are gluten-free! If it is gluten free baking powder, it will have to be displayed on the product! If you want to skip baking powder completely or if you don’t have any at home, simply substitute it through baking soda or vinegar. And don’t worry, you won’t notice any vinegar flavor after the baking process!
You’ll need about 5g baking soda and 3-4 tablespoons of apple vinegar for 500g flour. Little bubbles will appear as soon as the vinegar get’s in touch with the baking soda. These will eventually grow during the baking process and will make your cake or bread really fluffy. You can buy baking soda in every well equipped supermarket, in drug stores, Müller Markets, natural food stores and on the internet. It’s mostly known under the name baking soda. Apple vinegar is available at any supermarket and nowadays even in organic quality.
Now let’s move on to the category: Coatings, Spices, Salt, Oil’s and fat’s.
Breadcrumbs:
Breadcrumbs usually contain gluten! It’s easy to produce your own gluten free breadcrumbs though. Simply rasp 2 days old gluten free bread and store it within a Tupper box or a glass as dry as possible. That way you’ll always have enough storage. Nowadays you’ll find tasty and well working, gluten free breadcrumbs without additives in health food stores, organic supermarkets or on the internet. By the way, chickpea flour works perfectly to coat as well;-) You’ll find respective recipes as always on our blog.
Spices:
I’ve received countless inquiries regarding my spicing habits;-) Because most of the instant seasonings contain gluten, yeast, sugar, glutamate etc.
Let me explain: To me, it is very important to taste the natural flavor of the product that I am eating.
For example: Vegetables should taste like vegetables and not like salt, pepper, sauces or any other seasonings. Therefor I only spice my food very little and if so only with the best quality spices. I usually work with fresh herbs, bay leaf, sea salt, pepper from the mill and now and then with some chili.
Mr. Kitchen Revolution is usually responsible for the salad sauces;-) And I personally think that his salad sauces are the best;-). At this point, Mr. kitchen Revolution would like to introduce you to one of his favorite and easiest dressing recipes!! If you don’t want to miss this amazing recipe, I suggest, simply try it out;-) This salad dressing suits all green salads. I am very grateful that Mr. kitchen Revolution shared it with me;-). A big thank you to Mr. Kitchen Revolution ♥
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of high quality extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon of water, ¼ of a freshly pressed lemon, a pinch of sea salt, 1 tablespoon of fresh chive rolls and 1 teaspoon of tamari sauce of the company “Arche”. It’s gluten free. Fill everything into a vessel or a shaker, stir well or shake and that’s all;-) You can find many tasty dressings on our blog in the category: Salads.
Salt:
As mentioned earlier, too much salt is not good for our bodies. And too little neither! That’s why it’s the same as with all the other topics, the quantity makes the poison;-) Of course, I season my meals with salt as well but only with a high quality sea salt. They say salt with iodine is the best! Oops…, I guess I missed that point! Because how could anyone claim that iodine salt is healthy if no one tested the individual iodine level in advance? I find that very dangerous!
My personal opinion is that you should check your iodine levels and then decide if you need more or even less iodine.
My absolute favorite salt is called Fleur de Sal / Flor de Sal. You can buy these wonderful salt crystals either directly in Mallorca or Ibiza or in well equipped supermarkets, on the internet, in health food stores, at Müller market or well equipped drug stores.
What you should know as well:
Now and then, you’ll find some recipes that contain gluten, dairy products and yeast on Micha’s Kitchen revolution.
This is simply because there are people who are not intolerant to these ingredients but they might be towards others and therefor happy about recipes which at least serve as many ingredients as possible. And for that reason Micha’s Kitchen Revolution is there for ALL of us;-) However, 90% of my recipes are dairy, yeast and gluten-free. But not bio-free!!
And at last another great information for you. If you want to know more about dairy products, gluten, industrial sugar, over-acidification and more, you should definitely check out the interview with Ralf Meyer, my husband or better known, Mr. kitchen Revolution;-) You might ask yourself: Why is she interviewing her own husband? Simple answer: Because to me, and and many other people, he is the VERY BEST when it comes to nutrition and health!
Well, we are almost at the end. But there are still two very important things that I would like to share with you. I personally think that not just nutrition is very important for our health but positive thinking and electronic smog as well! But let’s start with electro smog. If you own a microwave, please listen carefully to what I have to say: Never heat or cook any of your meals or drinks within! Especially, DON’T heat milk or food for your child with it! The only thing you should do with your microwave is: Pull the plug, store it in your basement until the garbage truck comes! Mobile phones are another topic that is dear to me! Naturally I own one as well, and sometimes I ask myself: What would we do without those little things? Honestly, I have no idea! I just know one thing for sure: Microwaves and mobile phones are not increasing our health at all. It came to my attention that especially men love to carry their cell phones in their chest pocket;-( Or that most people use their phones without headphones to talk to people many hours a day. Another bad habit is to place your phone next to your head throughout the entire night. Some people even place it under their pillow without switching it into flight mode! This can’t be healthy!! Therefor, PLEASE, PLEASE, DON’T DO THAT!!! If you have to be available all day long due to your job, at least use some headphones to avoid the radiation next to your head. And don’t forget that we are still available during the night through the landline in case of emergency. This one is for the men out there: Why do you think women use a handbag all the time? Guys, buy yourself a handbag as well so that your mobile phone finally get’s a suitable place to be stored in;-) I can’t say too much about this topic but I am allowed to recommend certain links to studies that are really worth to be read.
Positive thinking.
At this point I wish you most and for all lots of health, love, success with my recipes and of course looot’s of fun with our blog!!
My team and I are looking forward to your engagement through comments or emails!
Kind regards
Micha´s – kitchen – revolution Team ♥