Funky Ingredients

Some recipes on this site call for ingredients that aren't currently commonly used or known in the United States by home chefs. The following is information about them. The bulk of the information is given in terms of grams of mass, however, in order to facilitate the computation of the nutritional value of recipes, the density of an ingredient is listed as "(1 cup = N g)."

Note that the following information is only approximate due to variations between producers.

Nutrition Information per 100g (1 cup = 150 g)
Calories		370
	From Fat	50
Total Fat		5 g
	Saturated Fat	0 g
Total Carbohydrate		61 g
	Dietary Fiber	5 g
	Sugars	1.5 g
Sodium		26 mg
Protein		21 g

Chick Pea Flour

(also known as "garbanzo flour")

As its name implies, this is a flour made from dried and ground chick peas (aka garbanzo beans). It has no gluten but is high in protein. This is one of the main ingredients in falafel, and it is also traditionally used to make flatbread. Its flavor is very mild, but easily distinguished.

Nutrition Information per 100g (1 cup = 120 g)
Calories		400
	From Fat	15
Total Fat		1.5 g
	Saturated Fat	0 g
Total Carbohydrate		20 g
	Dietary Fiber	0 g
	Sugars	0 g
Sodium		30 mg
Protein		77 g

Vital Wheat Gluten

(also known as "pure gluten flour")

This is a flour made from high gluten wheat flour, with additional processing to remove the starch and bran, leaving mostly protein. Vital wheat gluten is light tan in color and has almost no flavor.

If one is allergic to wheat, then it is usually the case that it is the gluten that is the issue; so, if this is the case for you, then vital wheat gluten is probably out. However, if you are carbohydrate intolerant, then vital wheat gluten is probably a fine thing to have, since it is very low in carbohydrates compared to most flours.

by Dan Bornstein, danfuzz@milk.com, http://www.milk.com/home/danfuzz/.

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