Tiger nuts.  Heard of them?  I hadn’t.  But they were recommended to me to try as a base for a homemade milk.  I ordered some from the river (that would be Amazon) and gave them a try.  You can buy tiger nuts themselves or tiger nut flour.  I ordered both.

Not a nut

Tiger nuts are actually tubers–roots that grow underground.  They’ve been around a long time, just not eaten much by us “modern” food snobs who prefer cake and ice cream. They’re about the size of a very big pea, cream-colored, and wrinkly.  They are very tough to chew, but have a nice, sweet, nut-like flavor.  Your jaws will be tired snacking on plain tiger nuts, though.  I liked them, and my kids did too.  But the chewing was rough.  So I used some of the flour in a muffin recipe the kids like.  (It didn’t replace all of the flour I used, just some.)  It went fine.  Sometimes, the tiger nut flour has tough gritty little flecks in it that you can feel when you bite.  I knew what it was in the muffin, but if I was having a ladies’ coffee, I’d probably opt not to use the tiger nut flour.  But for home use, it’s great.

Tiger nuts are great sources of resistant starch.  Resistant starch is a kind of special fiber which is very important to feed your gut bacteria so that YOU can be healthy.  Resistant starch is usually missing in our modern diets.  It is touted to help in diabetes, gastrointestinal issues, and managing weight.  I like resistant starch because it helps my slow GI tract a bit.

How we like to eat them

My kids and I both miss the convenience of cereal.  We try not to rely on grains in our house, although we do eat some.  But cereal every day for breakfast is clearly relying on grains.  We don’t do that.  If there’s one thing I could get moms to believe, it’s that breakfast cereal just isn’t healthy.  No matter what the marketing ploy.  But we do miss cereal.  We have used tiger nut flour to replace our grain-based cereal cravings.

We put some fruit in a bowl (our favorites are strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, and ripe peaches), add about 1-2 tablespoons of tiger nut flour on top, a touch of maple syrup, and a little of our favorite milk (or the one best tolerated anyhow).  My kids like it a lot and says it tastes like cereal.  It may be wise to start with just a little tiger nut flour (or tiger nuts) and work your way up.  Your gut bacteria may need a little time to adjust to this new tasty food source.  If you go too fast with it, you may be uncomfortable.  None of us had this problem, but I have read about it in others.

That’s our tiger nut story.  A good little find for us.

Conclusion

Enough about tiger nuts.  They’re nice, and maybe you’d want to try them.  But what I really want to know–health and eating whole, real foods to get it–are you still working at it?  We’re about half-way through the year now.  Nearly six months ago maybe you made some New Year’s resolutions.  Who cares if it’s not New Years anymore?  Pull back out those resolutions and get back on track.  The fruit is ripe and the vegetables of summer are calling.  NOW is the time!  NOW, I say!  Wash ’em up and put some tiger nut flour on them.

~~Terri

P.S.  1.  You can also add tiger nut flour to smoothies.  2.  I don’t get anything at all for what I do here; nobody paid for me to post this.  Just my opinions here.  No sponsor or kickback.  3.  They fit well on an autoimmune diet.  4.  Have a good day and forge a good life.