Whole Foods Companion

Avena is the old Latin name for the plant, while sativa means “cultivated.” The English name oat comes from the Old English ate.

General Information

Oats seem to be of western European origin, probably developed from two wild grasses, the common wild oat (A. fatua) and the wild red oat (A. sterilis), around 2500 B.C. Most likely oats traveled to northern Europe along with the raiders, the merchant caravans, the invaders, and the plunderers, who would have carried them as feed for their horses. In cold northern climes such as the British Isles and Scandinavia, where few other grains would grow, oats were of great importance and soon became a staple food. By the thirteenth century oats, then known as pilcorn, were a part of every Scot’s daily fare. They were also a popular food among the poor, who could not grow wheat or afford wheat flour. Oats arrived in the New World in 1602 and were planted on the Elizabeth Isles off the coast of Massachusetts, where they soon flourished. An annual grass, oats can grow to heights of two to five feet; only about 5 percent of the entire crop is consumed by humans, with the rest grown primarily as livestock feed. There are both winter and spring varieties, as with wheat. The grains, known as groats, are most often crushed to make oatmeal, oat flour, and oat flakes. Americans consume only about eleven pounds of oats per capita annually, mostly in the form of oatmeal for breakfast.

Lore and Legend

The Romans conquered the English but found the wild Scotsmen invincible. One old account attributed the Highlanders’ prowess and guerrilla-like mobility to their staple food. Each Highlander carried a pouch of oatmeal, and dinner was as quick as mixing seawater with it to form a cake that baked in minutes on a hot stone over an open fire. Eighteen centuries later Samuel Johnson in his famous English dictionary defined oats as “A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people,” to which a Scotsman replied, “England is noted for the excellence of her horses; Scotland for the excellence of her men.”

Culinary Uses

Unlike other grains, oats must be steamed before their two inedible outer hulls can be removed. As with other grains, the more processed oats are, the more their flavor and nutrients are compromised. For all of northern Europe, oats are a part of the culinary heritage, and for the Scots no celebration or cookbook would be complete without their appearance. While the whole groat (minus the inedible outer hull) may be cooked like brown rice, most oats are consumed in the form of oatmeal. Oats contain moderate amounts of gluten and can be used for thickening and enriching soups, for extending meat loaves, for stuffings, pilafs, cakes, breads, muffins, pancakes, granola, and muesli. Oats also contain an antioxidant that delays rancidity; thus the groats can be ground into flour that is longer lasting than whole-wheat flour.

Health Benefits

pH 6.20–6.60. Oats contain a higher proportion of fat and protein than most other grains, and rightly have a reputation for being a warming food appropriate for cold climates. Oats are the one adaptogen grain, meaning that they improve resistance to stress and thus support the system being in a healthy state of balance. Oats help stabilize blood sugar, regulate the thyroid, soothe the nervous and digestive systems, reduce the craving for cigarettes, and reduce cholesterol. The rolled variety are easily and quickly digested and take less time to cook than steel-cut oats. They are best eaten alone, as milk and sugar will cause them to ferment in the stomach, with all the possible benefits lost. Many people find that oats act as a mild laxative because of their high fiber content. Eating oats can lower cholesterol, as the soluble fiber acts like little sponges, binding cholesterol and carrying it out of the body. Oats are reputedly beneficial for those with an under-functioning thyroid gland, and their rich silicon content helps renew the bones and all connective tissue. Externally, oats have an anti-inflammatory effect on certain skin problems such as contact eczema, and some physicians recommend oatmeal packs to treat psoriasis. Oat flour is an effective skin cleanser and can replace soap when necessary. Added to bathwater it will soothe the itch of irritations such as eczema, poison ivy, and poison oak, or if made into a thick poultice it can be applied directly to the affected areas.

Lore and Legend

In ancient plant lore an offering of oats showed an appreciation for someone’s music; this evidently was an allusion to the shepherd’s pipe, the popular “oaten straw” of pastorals. Tea made from oats achieved a curious reputation in the early part of the twentieth century as being able to “cure the opium habit,” and reduce the craving for cigarettes.

Byproducts

Oat bran is the outer covering of the hulled oat groat. Although not the universal panacea for health problems that was originally claimed, studies show that the consumption of oat bran does help lower blood cholesterol levels, as do rice, corn, and wheat bran, because of their fiber content. Oat bran is a delicious and nutritious addition to any baked product. Since it is the oil in the bran that contains the nutrients, all types of bran need to be stored in the refrigerator to prevent rancidity.

Oat flour, also known as flaked oats, retains most of the nutrients present in whole oats, as the bran and germ remain intact in processing. It can be used interchangeably with whole-wheat pastry flour in some recipes, giving a moist, delicate sweetness to breads, pancakes, biscuits, scones, and other pastry products. The addition of oat flour to baked goods gives the added benefit of a natural antioxidant, which enables baked products to retain their freshness longer. Oats have only a moderate gluten content, so they need to be combined with wheat flour or other high-gluten-content flour when making leavened bread. Oat flour can also be used as a thickening agent in sauces, soups, and stews. If you can’t find oat flour at a health food store, you can make your own by whirring rolled oats in an electric blender and then sifting to remove the coarser elements.

Oat groats are hulled, whole kernels that have been cleaned and dried. They are roasted slightly during the cleaning and hulling process but have virtually the same nutrients as the whole grain; plus, the roasting process adds richness to the flavor. Softer than a wheat berry, oat groats can be pounded with a wooden mallet or rolled on a flat surface with a rolling pin so they will cook quicker than in their original form. They are used in baking, as a cereal, or added to other grains for chewiness.

Rolled oats are made from hulled groats that have been steamed and rolled flat into flakes. “Instant” or “quick oats” are groats that have been precooked in water, dried, and rolled superthin; although quicker to cook, they have less nutritional value because of their exposure to high heat during processing. Both varieties may be ground into a coarse meal suitable for bread making or used whole in cereals, cookies, cakes, and breads or as toppings for fruit crisps. Rolled oats made from the whole grain are subject to rancidity within one to three months after milling; thus it is advisable to store any bulk quantities that will not be used within one month below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Steel-cut oats, also known as Scotch or Irish oats, are natural, unrefined oat groats that have been processed with a minimal amount of heat by steel blades, which cut them into two or three small pieces. These are available in coarse and fine grinds—the finer the slicing, the quicker the grain cooks. They still contain everything that is in the whole oat, retaining most of their B vitamins even through processing. With their fairly long cooking time they are best used for tasty, chewy cereals; however, cooked steel-cut oats can be blended with various flours for baking.

Whole oats are unprocessed and retain the beneficial bran and germ. This whole form stores well without substantial deterioration. They can be used in baking (after being cooked), as a cereal, added to other grains for chewiness, or sprouted. Sprouting dramatically increases the supply of B vitamins and also releases other minerals for use.

Broad/Fava Bean
(Vicia faba, Faba vulgaris)

Also Known As: Horse Beans, Daffa Beans, Windsor Beans, Grosse Bohnen

Vicia is a classical name for the vetch family (a type of legume) and is believed to come from the Latin vincire, meaning “to bind” or “to twist.” Faba comes from the Greek phago, meaning “to eat,” as this plant yields edible seeds. The specific term vulgaris means “common.” As its English name suggests, the broad bean is substantial in size.

General Information

The broad bean is considered native to the Mediterranean basin, with seeds being found in Egypt dating back to between 2400 and 2200 B.C. A large bean—about 1 1/4 inches long—resembling a lima in size, it is light brown in color and oval in shape, with a dark line running down the ridge where it is split. As a vegetable the broad bean retained its popularity in Europe not only because it could be dried and saved for eating later but also because for many centuries it was the only readily available bean. So important was it, together with other pulses, that from the early Middle Ages onward there was a death sentence for theft from open fields of beans, peas, and lentils. It has remained a favorite throughout the major continents, with the exception of North America, where it is just now becoming widely available. Ful medames are a small variety of broad bean widely eaten in the Middle East; its white counterpart is called ful nabed. This smaller variety has given its name to one of Egypt’s national dishes (ful medames), in which the beans are baked with eggs, cumin, and garlic. The name is thought to derive from mudammas, meaning “buried,” because a dish was cooked by being buried in hot ashes and left overnight. Ful is simply the Arabic word for the fava bean.

Culinary Uses

Fresh fava beans are large, flat, and oval, with a firm creamy texture and dainty, nutty taste. Young beans are quite tender, but as they mature, the skin covering the bean becomes coarser and tougher. Older beans need this coarse outer skin removed or “slipped” before they are eaten. If you are fortunate enough to be in possession of young beans, cook them whole. Simply trim the ends, rinse, and cook in boiling water for four to five minutes. The young pods are unexpectedly filling, and you will find one pound in weight will happily satisfy six to eight people as a side dish. Dried favas look like large lima beans and have a mealy, granular texture and an assertive flavor; they need long, slow cooking and their thick skins peeled before eating. Favas can be eaten on their own, in casseroles, or in salads. Served hot with melted butter, seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper, and sprinkled with chopped parsley or basil, they are delicious. In most recipes, favas can be substituted for limas.

Health Benefits

Fava beans provide nutritional benefits similar the kidney bean family. Note: Favism is a painful blood condition brought on by eating fava beans or by inhaling the pollen from the flowering plant. Evidently this is an inborn error of metabolism, a genetic defect that causes the red blood cells to rupture after the individual comes in contact with them. There is no known way to remove or inactivate the responsible substances. Favism is thought to affect up to 35 percent of some Mediterranean populations and 10 percent of African Americans. Symptoms of favism include dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, followed by severe anemia.

Lore and Legend

In the Greek and Roman world the broad bean was highly regarded, although there have been some very curious beliefs regarding these beans. Herodotus (History, II.xxxvii) recounts that the Egyptian priests regarded broad beans with horror as unclean, and Pythagoras, who imported many Egyptian elements into his religion, similarly despised them. A tenet of his doctrine of metempsychosis is that souls may transmigrate into beans after death. This may have some connection with the fact that bean feasts traditionally ended funerals, and that they figured in rites to rid households of the evil effects occasioned by the nocturnal visits of lemurs, the wandering souls of the wicked (in England, several beans were placed in graves to keep ghosts away, and if you happened to see a ghost, you were to spit a bean at it). Yet broad beans were popular enough with the lay folk, to whom they were distributed by candidates for public office at election times. The politicians were not simply currying favor, since the beans were used as voting tokens during magisterial elections. This custom was later remarked upon by Plutarch, whose proverbial dictum abstineto a fabis (abstain from beans) passed into English. No one is sure now whether this was an injunction to refrain from politics and bribery, or from involvement in civil affairs (a continuing of the Pythagorean and priestly prejudice), or a warning against dabbling in the supernatural, since beans have been connected not only with ghosts and death but also with supernatural spirits and witches. Scottish witches, it was once believed, rode not on a broomstick but on a beanstalk. Since the Middle Ages (and earlier in Rome at the Saturnalian festivities, the holiday that became transformed into Twelfth Night), beans were the main ingredient in the Twelfth Night Cake, which also contained honey, flour, ginger, and pepper. This was a sacred cake: one portion was for God, one for the Holy Virgin, and three for the Magi. In Rome even now, a holiday cake is baked with one fava bean hidden inside; the one who gets the piece with the bean is crowned king (or queen) of the festivities.