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Questions about flours and nut butter swaps


smiths37

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I've been looking at a lot of Whole30 recipes and so many of them call for different combinations of compliant flours and nut butters. I can see this getting expensive if you bought coconut flour, almond flour, flax seed meal, arrowroot powder, cashew butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter, etc.  So, what are so good rules of thumb for swapping? Is every flour interchangeable? Is every nut butter interchangeable? Would you use one substitute for some instances but not in others? I'm usually not afraid of swaps, but I've never worked with most of these ingredients so I'm not sure what their texture, consistency, or flavor is like and how much that would impact a recipe. 

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3 minutes ago, smiths37 said:

I've been looking at a lot of Whole30 recipes and so many of them call for different combinations of compliant flours and nut butters. I can see this getting expensive if you bought coconut flour, almond flour, flax seed meal, arrowroot powder, cashew butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter, etc.  So, what are so good rules of thumb for swapping? Is every flour interchangeable? Is every nut butter interchangeable? Would you use one substitute for some instances but not in others? I'm usually not afraid of swaps, but I've never worked with most of these ingredients so I'm not sure what their texture, consistency, or flavor is like and how much that would impact a recipe. 

What are you using all these flour substitutes for?  

Coconut flour CANNOT be interchanged as it has been defatted and is extremely dry... it needs a LOT of moisture in whatever youre using it for to make it edible.  All nut butters are generally interchangeable but cashew is sweeter than almond, sunflower seed is a bit bitter etc... 

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8 minutes ago, smiths37 said:

and so many of them call for different combinations of compliant flours and nut butters

In the book, or on the internet in general?

Short answer is that most flours/thickeners are not interchangeable due to different physical properties such as solubility and moisture absorption, but most nut butter should be okay to swap.

However, what are these recipes?  Technically-compliant flours are only allowed to be used in very specific contexts:

Yes, you can have almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, cassava flour and other non-grain-based flours, but it’s context-dependent. You can use it in place of breadcrumbs in your meatballs, to dredge a piece of chicken, or to thicken a sauce or stew.  You may not use it for Paleo baking—to make muffins, pancakes, bread, cupcakes, cookies, waffles, biscuits, tortillas, pizza crust, or anything of that nature. We call those recipes Sex With Your Pants On (SWYPO) foods, and they are expressly off-limits during your Whole30.


https://whole30.com/2013/06/the-official-can-i-have-guide-to-the-whole30/

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For example, the salmon cakes in the Whole 30 book - calls for almond flour. But I'm also probably going to make this recipe: http://themovementmenu.com/recipes/whole30-curry-meatballs/ which calls for flax seed meal, cashew butter, and arrowroot flour. 

So, from the info you guys have provided, it sounds like I'd probably be ok to swap cashew butter with almond butter if I wanted to. But should buy the almond flour, flax seed meal, and arrowroot flour? And generally just stick with what the recipe calls for in terms of flours? 

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Ooh, and one more question. I'm looking at a salmon burger recipe that is not compliant, but if I wanted to make it compliant, the only change I'd need to make is swapping out breadcrumbs. In this case, if that recipe calls for 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs, would the swap be 1/3 cup of almond flour?

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14 minutes ago, smiths37 said:

For example, the salmon cakes in the Whole 30 book - calls for almond flour. But I'm also probably going to make this recipe: http://themovementmenu.com/recipes/whole30-curry-meatballs/ which calls for flax seed meal, cashew butter, and arrowroot flour. 

So, from the info you guys have provided, it sounds like I'd probably be ok to swap cashew butter with almond butter if I wanted to. But should buy the almond flour, flax seed meal, and arrowroot flour? And generally just stick with what the recipe calls for in terms of flours? 

Arrowroot is pretty specific and is usually a sub for cornstarch.  Flax seed meal and almond meal is reasonable to interchange.  I would be more inclined to switch TO almond butter from cashew rather than the other way around just because of the sweetness factor.  Also, almond butter seems to be a bit runnier so if you want to switch TO cashew, you'll probably need a touch more liquid... google can probably give you more info on subbing alternate flours.

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8 minutes ago, smiths37 said:

Ooh, and one more question. I'm looking at a salmon burger recipe that is not compliant, but if I wanted to make it compliant, the only change I'd need to make is swapping out breadcrumbs. In this case, if that recipe calls for 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs, would the swap be 1/3 cup of almond flour?

Yes, that works!  You may need a touch more, but you know what salmon cake batter should look like so if it's too wet, more almond flour... easier to add more than to try and add more liquid, altho if you overdo it on the almond flour, add an extra egg or some more lime juice or something.

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Looking at that meatball recipe, I assume the flax seed is to help bind the meatballs together - i'd personally use egg instead to hold it together.

I personally don't care about thickening sauces, so I don't keep arrowroot powder on hand and completely ignore it any time I see it in a recipe.  Also, the cashew (or other nut  butter) should have some thickening properties to it.  

I usually have some sort of almond flour/coconut flour on hand but (for me), buying other types of flours is just not worth it.  So, no, I wouldn't recommend buying a wide variety, I don't think it's worth it.

 

 

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57 minutes ago, slc_melissa said:

Looking at that meatball recipe, I assume the flax seed is to help bind the meatballs together - i'd personally use egg instead to hold it together.

I personally don't care about thickening sauces, so I don't keep arrowroot powder on hand and completely ignore it any time I see it in a recipe.  Also, the cashew (or other nut  butter) should have some thickening properties to it.  

I usually have some sort of almond flour/coconut flour on hand but (for me), buying other types of flours is just not worth it.  So, no, I wouldn't recommend buying a wide variety, I don't think it's worth it.

 

 

Cool - thanks for the info!

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