How to Soak Grains (and Why to Do It)

Have you heard about soaking grains for better digestion?

I hadn’t either until about 3 years ago.

The road to healthy eating sure is a long one.  One step at a time.  There is so much information and always something new to learn.

Take me, for example.  I thought I was a healthy eater when -

• I stopped eating meat and ate an extremely low fat diet.  Then
• I switched from processed foods to whole wheat flour and less refined sweeteners.  Then
• I started grinding my own grain….oh, I guess I’m getting ahead of myself.  And perhaps I am overwhelming you as well .

Before you feel intimidated by anything that I write about our family’s nutrition, let me be clear that we are all a work in progress in all arenas of life.  We’re all trying to get ourselves and/or our families to eat better, and we need to be happy about what we have accomplished and just press ahead making the most of what we know at a pace that doesn’t exhaust us.

In any case, somewhere along the line I heard about the importance of soaking grains.

There’s a lot of information on grains, and about soaking them.  There are even folks who think that eating grains is not healthy at all.  I haven’t come down on either side of this argument, but it seems to me that there is a lot of reason to cut back, especially on the refined (white) flours.  Without getting too involved in the discussion, here are my basic thoughts, in a debatable order of importance:

Making the Grains in Your Diet Healthier

• Stop eating (or at least greatly reduce) refined flours that are devoid of all nutrients.  That means no white flour, and even no tapioca starch (for those of you on gluten free diets).  These basically wreck your digestive system.
• Start grinding your own grain
• Eat less gluten
• Start soaking your grain
• Eat less grain (us westerners, in particular, need to cut back)
• And somewhere in that list should be “Buy organic, or at least ‘certified chemical free’ (CCF) grains, whenever possible”.

I’ll touch on all of these at another time, but for today, let’s talk about soaking grains – quick and easy how to do it.  Tomorrow I’ll share a great soaked grains recipe, Baked Doughnuts, which includes gluten-free and sugar-free options.

Why Soak Your Grains

Basically, think about what first goes in the ground in order to grow a plant — seeds, right?  Well, the seeds that we eat are seeds, nuts, and grains.  All of these things have protective coatings that need to be removed for the seeds to germinate (of course, we remove the shells of the nuts and seeds before eating), but there are also enzyme inhibitors found in whole grains (and in seeds, nuts and legumes) that prevent them from being digested properly.

In my post about soaking nuts and seeds I addressed that food group, and in how to de-gas beans, I talked about making beans more digestible.  Well, now it’s time to work on the grains.

When you soak your grains, you are working on the enzyme inhibitors to make the grains easier to digest.  Some people find that they do not have a problem (or as much of a problem) with gluten when they soak their gluten-containing grains first.  I’ve found that soaked grain recipes have a lighter texture and seem to be easier on our digestive systems.

So my decision for now is to soak the grains when I remember and when I have time.  Sometimes I forget and bake the recipe just the way that it was written.  I used to find myself really stressing out when I realized that I hadn’t planned for soaking or had completely forgotten about it.  But stress is clearly the bigger problem here so –

stress not and soak when you can .

I know for sure that soaking nuts and seeds is beneficial, and so is the soaking of beans before cooking in addition to the addition of ajwain or epazote to the cooking water.  However, the grain soaking thing (exactly how to do it) is still a bit up in the air from the research that I have read.

Here’s the most common way and -

Easy Tips for How To Soak Your Grains

• Combine your grains (either whole or in cut, flaked, or flour form) with liquids (see next step), sweeteners and fats.
• Replace 1 Tbsp of your liquid with an acidic medium (vinegar, lemon juice, or whey).  Of course, if the liquid is already acidic or cultured, then you can simply skip this step.
• Allow your mixture to sit at room temperature for at least 12 and for up to 24 hours.  When I am rushed, 7 hours works for me
• Add the remaining ingredients for your recipe and proceed as close as possible to the original instructions.

With some stiffer recipes (like pie crust, thick bars, or my doughnuts) it will be hard to mix at this point.  However, if you’re willing to put in a little elbow grease and make sure that all of the ingredients get mixed in well (like salt and baking soda….ever get an icky clump of one of those in your baked goods) you can use this technique for any grain-based recipe.

There is actually some really interesting information that recently came out about soaking and I hope to share that with you in the near future.  So stay tuned!

Meanwhile, soak when you can and trust God for the results until better information comes along.:-)

How about you?  Do you soak your grains?

{Photo Credit}

Shared at Tammy’s Recipes.