Baobab is a very powerful plant! If I hadn’t come to Cape Verde by chance one month ago, I wouldn’t have known about Baobab anything. I have run into the baobab in the market in Cape Verde at the natural medicine stall and this is how I got to know about this superfruit powerful benefits.
This is the lady, who actually showed me the powder and I couldn’t resist to buy it from her 🙂 Btw, my blog post about the trip to Cape Verde is still in process, but will be posted soon. I promise!
Baobab is being labeled as the “Superfruit” for its many health benefits. Comparing to many other vegan supplements and food ingredients, Baobab is a super nutritious food. People in Cape Verde just drink fresh juice from Baobab fruit, but I didn’t like it to be honest. It is not so tasty as any other fruit juice, but dried version of it as powder is very delicious, especially as additive to a dishes, smoothies or just mix with cold or hot water. Having a tiny sweet and pronounced citrus flavor it is easy to find the use in cooking. I do cook soups and also pancakes using the powder.
Did you know that this African superfruit is one of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world? Just a few teaspoons of powder contains 35% of daily requirement of vitamin C. Baobab powder is a great additive to high in sugar dishes, since almost 50% of the product is fiber which helps to release natural sugars slowly into your blood stream. It also has the highest antioxidant content of any fruit.
COOKING TIP!
Baobab Powder is a vegan, gluten free food that can be used as a replacement to flour and corn starch for thickening purposes. It has natural thickening properties, much like cream of tarter, and can be added to sauces, dressings, bake mixes, jams, and smoothies.
Per 100g:
Antioxidants: even more than acai, blueberries and pomegranates.
Calcium: 285 mg (35%); 2x more than 100 ml of milk
Vitamin C: 266mg (330%); delivers 6x more than a glass of orange juice
Potassium: 1980mg (99%); packs twice as much as bananas
Iron: 7.2mg (52%); 5x as much as red meat or spinach
Magnesium: 155mg (40%) 5x more than in avocado
Fiber: 47g by weight, of which 75% is soluble fiber
COURSE: Lunch, Dinner
CUISINE: Plant-based, Vegan, Gluten-free
INGREDIENTS
Pumpkin – 700g
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Onions – 1 medium
Celery – 2 stalks
Red paprika – 1 small
Vegetable broth – 200 ml
Baobab powder – 2 tbsp
Polenta – 2 tbsp
Coconut milk (canned) – 3 tbsp
Lime juice – 1 tbsp
Muscat flower – 1 flower
Salt & pepper
INSTRUCTION
- Pre-heat your oven to 190°C.
- Cut the onions, pumpkin, celery and paprika in pieces and drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven. Bake it for 30 minutes.
- Put all cooked vegetables in the pot and cover with hot broth (or water) with muscat flower. Boil for 5-7 min.
- Add all the rest of ingredients, stir in the soup and blend all together with hand blender until smooth.
- Keep pureed soup on low heat for another few minutes.
- Garnish the soup with fresh cilantro, black pepper and seeds as an option.
The soup is ready. Enjoy it!
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