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Mixed Sourdough Starter w/ legumes and flax symbiosis

Steven307's picture
Steven307

Mixed Sourdough Starter w/ legumes and flax symbiosis

Greetings everyone. This is my first post here. I have been experimenting with sourdough for a couple of years now. When i started, i loved to make it, but then i was travelling, and i sadly resorted boiling whole grains and legumes.....i.e. rice and lentils and what-have-you. But i missed it and more-so recently i started again, and i realized that this is my food religion. Love it. 

So, i am a big proponent of balanced nutrients. I love, also, the semi-digested elements of sourdough. I feel a better nutrition and energy. I am a big fan of using natural intuition, also, kind of like dowsing techniques when i cook. When i first got into making sourdough, i started an experiment with adding a small amount of chickpeas or other legume and ground up flax seed into the starter. I was wondering if there was information out there about making a mixed-culture symbiosis. (I had already actually done little experiments with some success, but i was still wondering about this, as it was new territory. I was really exited about it. It was like a scientific experiment for me.) Later on, the only information that i was able to find on it was a few sources. One being: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4618940/

This is very scientific, but it proved to me that people had good results.....

....and also, more importantly, i read about the "Eftazimo" Cretan bread, that uses Chickpeas. I also read, later, about how that culture supposedly uses fermented "vetch" (which is a legume), for their starter.....

(example): https://www.thehungrybites.com/chickpea-starter-cretan-traditional-bread-eftazimo/

So i went with using some wheat flour with some chickpea and flax flour added. I even was adding a balance of corn flour with the wheat, too. (I had been living in Mexico, prior to returning to the states, and i had initially started the experiment there. It was not until i returned to the US, that i read about this information above. In Mexico, i was learning to grow corn, and i even tried to grow a little wheat. I liked the aesthetic of growing, cleaning, and harvesting the corn. Their culture is primarily about corn tortillas, though they also have history of traditional farming of wheat. I wanted to incorporate the corn, especially because i was intending to eat the corn that i was learning to grow....So i started the experiment in Mexico, with the mixed culture. (also i wanted to see if i could avoid using "cal" (lime). They add lime to their tortillas. I wondered if i could get a sticky dough without it. I did not want to use my hand grinder with wet 'masa' either....I thought that i would just combine them together and call it good. That is when i figured out that it seemed to work. I made quite a few loaves, and I was eating it. Baking it under the large comal (that they use to make tortillas and for the stove top), after they were done in the kitchen and i could jimmy-rig a stove, with the coals.) Up in the states, i got to experiment more with it, and once i got a really healthy culture going, it was delicious. I also tried using little, red lentils, which worked good and had a good flavor. (Note: anytime that i switched between different legumes or seeds (i am sure grains, too, to a lesser extent), there was a sort of "lag time", in which the culture was adjusting to the new elements and adjusting its natural probiotic enzymes to digest it. So i find something that works, and i then add roughly the same ingredients, and i use my intuition.) I found that the green lentils stank. I did not like them, in the past, but i don't know what would happen if i let them digest longer...... I have recently used black-eyed peas, and they had a wonderful smell. That is how i started this new mixed culture. Really good. I don't have any of that left, right now, and so i gave 'Great Northern' beans a shot, and it actually works. I am just using some 'great northern' bean flour mixed in. Surely there are better options, but it works. I found that a good loaf of mixed and balanced bread has something of a "cheesy?" flavor to it. I am imagining that may have a lot to do with the digesting flax, especially, being as though it has fat/oils to it. Probably a mix...  I personally believe that it is really a good taste.

I just want to share that with you, because i think that there is great potential in experimenting with this, but i read very little information in regards to it. Probably there is an audience in here that does this too? I am excited to hear that ancient Greece was into it....

I used to have a simple, hand mill, but lately i have been using a Nutri Bullet with a special "mill" blade attachment. The flour is a tad bit more course, maybe, than it should, but it is still leavening fine. It is a fit of a thick bread, but i love it, and funny enough, as i look at those Scandanavian breads that they use for Smorgasbords, i am seeing much similarity, only that i have "self-standing" and it is not such a wet, batter consistency, and it is not so tall and square. Sometimes i add a little sugar to my starter (very little), with intuition, to give it a bit of a boost, and to give it a little nudge to break into its main body (also adjusting acid content), but this is not all the time, as i am primarily using this very little amount of sugar to add a little bit of a "digestive juice". I want to try and experiment with sprouting and drying grains, too, to use them for my flours, because, from what i understand, they have a higher sugar content to them. I would like to try and experiment and factor in a balance with that included. 

I want to share this info with you. I hope that you enjoyed. I will have to experiment more and more with all of this. I have had good success in leavening, but i am wagering that potentially one would not have such a light and leavened bread, as compared to pure grains? But then again, those 'Eftazimo' breads look like they got quite a reaction. I would need to get a finer flour and also, i believe, i can be using a better option than 'Great Northern' beans, right now. But none-the-less, i am getting sufficient rising and it makes a great, dense bread. I make numerous slices going down my not-so-tall bread so that i can kind of just break off bread sticks and scoop up my vegetables and what-have-you. I lived in Mexico for years, and so i like the tortilla vibe....But i love the leavening. (I feel that i am connecting with my Scandinavian roots a bit right now.) Anyways, it makes a great and holistic bread. I have a better digestion now, and i love the rounded taste to it. Plus, more or less, i don't need to cook anything more than some simple vegetables with some oils and thick fats and things, because it is well balanced. i.e./ i used to cook up a bean dip....now, i don't need as much on the side. 

Hope you appreciate the word. Let me know if you have any thoughts on it. Be well.

Andrew Shindyapin's picture
Andrew Shindyapin

Hi Steve,

I'm glad I came across this site and your post! I am interested in experimenting along the same lines you are.

I have been working on a minimal list of whole foods that would be nutritionally complete, and I was able to whittle it down to just seven ingredients. Three of them are black-eyed peas, sunflower seeds, and chia seeds. I am wondering if it would be possible to use them (along with a sourdough starter, salt, and water) to make sourdough bread.

I haven't tried experimenting with the idea yet. My sourdough preparation skills are almost non-existent, but I have observed my daughter baking sourdough bread.