Healthy Gluten-Free Bread from Tantrikas to You

I'm sharing stories and two bread recipes from my students!

The Story

A teacher once said to me, “You can’t be a Tantrika if you don’t like to cook.”

I doubt this is true, but I get the underlying sentiment.

Cooking is about alchemy and a fascination with how the elements
magically transform. So is Tantra.

Many of my students are wonderful cooks, and we love sharing and testing recipes together.

I’ve been an ardent cook since I was a little girl. Later, I worked as a pastry chef, prep cook, caterer, and as sole cook for a couple of one-person restaurant kitchens in NYC.

I could tell you lots of stories about my professional cooking days. But that’s a whole ‘nother post.

I’ll just plop a story here about the time I catered a party for a NYC socialite. The guest list included Jackie O., Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, and Woody Allen. One thing I remember is that when Jackie greeted me, she tilted her head toward me in a rather queen-like half-nod, and not a single hair on her head moved. It was like she was wearing a helmet.

Anyways, only a few hours before I was to begin cooking, the socialite informed me that the guest list had nearly doubled. She didn’t want to pay me more, and I couldn’t refuse as, at the time, I was pretty broke.

It was also too late to hire help, and the increased number of guests was really too much for one person. But I soldiered through.

If you don’t know, professional cooking is pretty hard labor. By the time everything was done and served, I was wrecked.

Unbeknownst to me, at these super-fancy catered events, the cooks are supposed to take a bow. Cooks are also supposed to change into clean clothes before taking said bow.

But I went out in front of the fanciest of the fancy in a filthy apron, probably with something stuck in my hair, and definitely looking frazzled.

I remember the sound of the clapping and their perfect smiles.

And then there was the time I critiqued a caesar salad and pissed off Lauren Bacall. . .

Many of the folks in our community, including myself, are eating gluten-free. Some kind students gifted me these super yummy, easy recipes with none of the icky, gluey stuff that’s usually found in gluten-free bread. Enjoy!

Vidhra’s Sprouted Grain Blender Bread

Wet Ingredients

• 4 large eggs

• 1.25 cups raw whole grain. Vidhra uses half quinoa and half raw buckwheat groats, soaked 8 - 12 hours and very well drained

• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 6 tbsp ghee (can sub another fat)

• 1.5 tsp salt

• 3 tbsp maple or date syrup

• 1/2 cup chia seeds

Dry Ingredients

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

• 2/3 cup whole pumpkin seeds

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. 

2. Line a 9 x 5 loaf pan with parchment paper so it hangs over the sides.

3. In any blender, add the eggs and soaked seeds or grain, very well drained. Blend until almost liquefied and fairly smooth.

4. Add vinegar, oil, salt, and syrup. Blend well.

5. Add chia seeds and continue to blend. The mixture will begin to thicken. You may need to stop the blender occasionally and stir.

6. Add baking soda, nutritional yeast, and pumpkin seeds, Blend very briefly so the pumpkin seeds stay in big chunks. 

7. Pour into the pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. 

8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool 20 minutes.

Slice and enjoy!

Sangita’s Vegan Almond Keto Bread

Ingredients

• 2 cups + 1 tbsp almond flour or almond meal

• ⅓ cup finely ground pumpkin seeds

• 3 tbsp ground flaxseeds

• 6 tbsp whole psyllium husks

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp avocado or olive oil

• 1.3 cups warm water

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• sunflower seeds to garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F

2. In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, pumpkin seed flour, ground flaxseeds, psyllium husk, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the oil, water, and apple cider vinegar to the well and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon, folding the ingredients until they hold together.

4. Knead with your hands briefly until a dough forms.

5. Set aside for 1-2 minutes to allow the fiber to absorb the liquid so that the dough is easier to shape.

6. Sangita uses an 8” loaf pan, but any similarly sized baking pan will do. Gently, shape the dough into a loaf or whatever shape you desire so that's a little smaller than your pan. Use minimal force when shaping the dough so that it does not become too dense.

7. Gently, smooth out the surface of the loaf with damp hands.

8. Place the loaf on a piece of parchment paper and lift it into the pan. The parchment should be large enough that it drapes slightly over the sides of the pan.

9. Sprinkle the loaf with sunflower seeds as desired and bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of your loaf comes out clean.

10. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and then gently lift out of the pan.

Want more? Please join me and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter on Substack to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.

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