Making Ezekiel’s Bread Part of Your Diet
Nutrition is not a mystery, however every day we read – or hear – about plant-based diets, super foods, nutrient density, “complete nutrition,” and dozens of diet plans such as Paleo and Keto diets. What to do?
Eating a well-balanced diet consisting of plenty of minimally processed organic fruits and vegetables and high-quality protein (plant- or animal-based) is a simple prescription for healthy families to follow. However we CAN supplement the plan with a nutritionally dense bread made with grains, pulses, and millet.
Dry-land Montana is home to grain farmers that grow durum wheat, emmer wheat, barley, chickpeas, lentils, and millet – nutritious grains close at hand! But, most of it is shipped out of the state and nearly none of it is milled into flour.
You can mill your own and bake your own. Bring your baking home and use local and regional grains, pulses, and seeds. It’s the healthy thing to do.
Ezekiel’s Bread – Lunch and Learn, St. Peter’s Cathedral
While the bread Ezekiel was instructed to bake was a “punishment bread” and part of a bread and water diet to be eaten for 390 days, it was a special kind of bread that made it possible to survive on such skimpy fare.
An inquisitive group came together at St. Peter’s to learn more about the value of combining pulses and grains for better nutrition. We patted, rolled, and baked flat breads that sometimes refused to cooperate. The solution? Roll that recalcitrant dough back into a ball and try again!
In the end we had tasty bread for dipping into fresh hummus. And we shared conversation and concerns about the challenge of eating good food in a world that is full of grocery retailers offering “edible food-like substances” containing chemicals and toxins of which most of us are totally unaware. Ezekiel could sit at a table filled with the average American fare and barely recognize any of it as real food.
The time has come for us to look back at real and simple foods that are good for us, good for the farmers and ranchers, and good for the land and soil. Watch for the next in our Good Food Series at St. Peter’s Cathedral, Helena.
Baking Ezekiel Bread
This recipe is for flat breads. Even though the recipe includes flour from three kinds of grains, none of them have gluten strong enough to support a substantial rise to dough made of nearly 30 percent gluten-free flours. Sorry, no boules or baguettes here. The bread resembles a rustic pita bread and it should be served immediately after baking or steamed for a few minutes before serving to soften and warm the bread.
Note: While you can grind all the grains, pulses, and millet at home in even a small coffee grinder, it takes a lot of time. I was able to buy five of the various flours, except the lentil flour, in local markets. The coffee grinder worked perfectly for the small amount of lentil flour needed.