Why does a loaf hold together when there is no flour in it? Why do bean patties fall apart in the pan when potato ones do not? Each guide here answers the one question a whole group of our recipes kept raising. Venny is a medical doctor and a dietitian, Andy is a psychologist, and everything below was cooked in our own kitchen before it was written down.
One Medjool weighs as much as two to two and a half of the regular dates our recipes use, so swap them by weight. How to make date paste, store and freeze dates, and what dates mean for diabetes, kidneys and teeth, from 55 of our recipes.
Tahini sauce is tahini, lime, garlic, water and salt. How to make it, how 7 of our recipes use tahini, the substitutes we use, and what to know about sesame allergy.
One part quinoa to two parts water, covered, 12 minutes. How 13 of our recipes use quinoa, when to rinse it, and what the celiac research says.
Brown rice has about four times the fiber of white and three times the magnesium, and more arsenic. What that means for blood sugar, pregnancy, babies and leftovers.
Ground flax binds patties and has blood pressure trials behind it, psyllium husk holds flourless bread together and lowers LDL, and chia sets puddings and frostings. What each one does, from 75 of our recipes.
Soaked beans take 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on the kind and the age of the bag. Salt the soak, add tomatoes last, bring dried beans to a full boil before any slow cooking, and know when a can is the better buy.
There is no all-purpose egg substitute. Counted across 200 of our own recipes: flax holds patties, psyllium is the only one that makes a sliceable loaf, chia never binds a patty, and dates and banana never go in bread.
No lentil needs soaking. Red split lentils collapse in fifteen to twenty minutes, brown and green hold their shape in twenty-five to thirty, and acid goes in at the end. Plus the 1982 study behind the second-meal effect.
Dried chickpeas cost about half the price of canned once cooked. Soak 12 hours, simmer an hour to an hour and a half, freeze the rest. And the one recipe on this site where a can will not work.
Three-day-old broccoli sprouts carry 10 to 100 times the glucoraphanin of the mature plant, and they are ready in three to five days. The jar method, who should not eat them raw, and the chopping trick that makes the compound in the first place.
1 part raw nut or seed to 1 or 2 parts water. The ratio behind every dressing we make, how to thicken one that came out too thin, and which nut gives which texture.
Water in the pan, parchment in the oven, and blended nuts where a dish needs to be rich. The technique behind nearly every recipe on this site, including the part about fat that most oil-free writing gets wrong.
Ground flaxseed does the job egg used to do, and these firm up as they cool rather than in the fridge. The mechanism, which base to start with, and every way they fall apart.
You can make a real, sliceable loaf from soaked lentils, chickpeas or quinoa and no flour at all. Here is the mechanism, which base to pick, and every way it goes wrong.
A boiled potato scored 323 on the satiety index, higher than anything else tested. The cook-and-cool trick, the objections that deserve a straight answer, and which potato to buy.