Discover The Magic of Mesquite: No-Knead Mesquite Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make mesquite flour? ›

Snap off any part of the mesquite pod that's been bored into by insects. Toast mesquite pods until they're golden and fragrant before grinding. Break toasted mesquite pods into smaller pieces before grinding. Grind toasted mesquite pods in a blender, food processor, grain mill or other device.

It's sweet with a strong flavor of what I can only compare to roasted hazelnut and cinnamon and a little bit of mild, lactic tang on the finish. It's not excessively sweet, so it's excellent with both savory and sweet stuff.

Other Ways to Use Mesquite Flour

Mesquite meal or flour can also be sprinkled on hot cooked cereal as a replacement for sugar. It can also be added to smoothies or meal replacement shakes to boost nutrition content adding fiber and protein.

Once washed, mesquite bean pods may be eaten straight of the bush. If they are ripened, they will be considerably sweet. The seeds are too hard to chew so when snacking on the pod, you'll likely spit seeds like you do with watermelon. Just chew soft and steady to save your grinders from any injury.

But which variety produces the best pods? Some have a chalky — even bitter — taste, while the best pods have a sweet, slightly nutty flavor. The best type for milling into flour come from the native velvet mesquite, I'm told.

Mesquite trees produce pods, which are ground whole to make mesquite powder. Also referred to as mesquite flour, mesquite meal or algarroba, these pods (including the protein rich seeds) have high nutritional value.

Hickory gives meat the strongest smoky flavor of all cooking woods. It's great to use when smoking beef and pork low and slow. Also, very strong, mesquite gives you a good flavor quickly, but mesquite can become bitter fast too. It's better to use mesquite for hot and fast cooks.

Two tablespoons of mesquite flour has 30 calories, 6 grams of carbohydrate, 3 grams of fiber, 1 gram of protein. The fiber as well as other complex carbohydrates slow digestion and help keep blood sugar levels stable so is beneficial for diabetes.

Mesquite Flavor Bisquettes especially pair well with beef, pork, game, fish, seafood, water fowl, and nuts. Additionally, try mesquite smoke for grilling steaks, vegetables, and other quick-cooking, flavorful foods. Pro tip: Mesquite wood's strong flavor can overpower mild poultry, pork shoulder, ribs, and fish.

The Seri use mesquite to make the ribs of wooden boats. Thorns were used as a needle in puncturing the skin for tattoos. Mesquite gum was used to glue foreshafts of arrows and adhere baskets to mortars. Tribes of the southwest used the gum secreted from the bark to mend pottery, make candy, and furnish a black dye.

How do you use mesquite flour in baking? ›

Tip: Mix with all-purpose or whole-wheat flour (about two parts regular flour, one part mesquite flour) to ensure you still get a fluffy texture in any baked good recipe. To get you started, these chocolate chip mesquite cookies look every ounce of amazing.

Did you know mesquite pods pack an impressive nutritional punch? The little seeds truly are a miracle food—they're rich in protein, calcium potassium, magnesium, iron, and zinc.

The clear mesquite sap that oozes from the tree was used to treat stomach aches. It is not only edible, but sweet and chewy and was collected, saved and then used to dose ill children, rather like a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Mesquite sap was used to treat diarrhea.

Health Benefits: Many parts of mesquite trees are used for their health and nutritional benefits including their bark, pods, branches, leaves and the gum from the trunk of the plant.

Most often made into a meal or a flour, the sweetest part of the pods is the pith surrounding the hard seeds, but the entire pod is edible ― with a little work, that is. Like American diet staples wheat and corn, mesquite does have one easily avoidable contaminant.

The mesquite pods should be completely dehydrated prior to grinding into flour. Mine were still a bit “green” so I set them in the solar oven for a few hours until they were dried and light tan in color. Note: This can also be done in an oven or dehydrator set to a low setting of 110 or 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mesquite is a good source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, and zinc. Mesquite is low carbohydrate, low glycemic and low in fat. This fragrant flour can be used in baking or as a seasoning on food and in drinks.

Whole ripe pods of Prosopis spp. are ground to produce flour, known as mesquite or Algarrobo flour, which is brown, sweet, and with an aroma that resembles coffee, cocoa, molasses, and hazelnut [2].