How do you eat your flax?

[passionpulp]

I got loads of flax yesterday at my health food store, and I'm not so sure what to do with it.
I don't have a dehydrator yet, so no crackers.
I was thinking about grinding it, soaking it, and eating it like oatmeal.

[CosimaMoon]

Put it in a smoothie. Anything you don't know how to eat--put it in a smoothie. Lol.

[sport]

You do not need much.
I find that 10 grams of it crushed provide 114% of my needed omega 3 for the day and 10 grams is just one large heaped dessert spoon.
It is recommended that you balance your omega 3 and 6 so when I use 10 grams of flax I counter it with 5 grams of either sunflower or pumpkin seeds.
I crush them together and add them to a smoothie or to ice cream.
If I am not having a suitable meal to add them to I just mix it in water and drink it before my meal.

[DawnD]

I eat tons of flax crackers but without crackers you can add to smoothies, sneak into a pate or other recipe. Grind first! Get creative!

[raczyk]

What about soaking then grinding them, would that work?

[Aleesha Sattva]

no it wouldn't cause they are like a mushy goo when they are soaked. So grind them first!

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

High fat omega 3 seeds like flax go rancid very quickly, so how do we know what is fit to eat and what is not fit to eat? The answer is to sprout them and test them out, this is the only true way to eat flax. Not only does sprouting test the quality of the life force in the seed, it also makes the omega 3's much much more available. Science has said that only 6% of omega 3's are absorbed from the flax oil by most humans so l am sure absorption from the flax seeds would be even worse, so why not solve all the potential problems and sprout it instead.

lt's best to sprout for 14 days and grow into a green and to consume as juice, but l prefer to sprout for 4 days and mush it into a paste.

[walnutty]

I dump them in my mouth and follow with lots of water! They're great laxatives! :dance:

[MysticTree]

I will probably buy some for sprouting today. When the shops open I will be heading into town for some health food shop supplies.

[Living Food]

Sprout them + juice them.


I find that 10 grams of it crushed provide 114% of my needed omega 3 for the day and 10 grams is just one large heaped dessert spoon.
It is recommended that you balance your omega 3 and 6 so when I use 10 grams of flax I counter it with 5 grams of either sunflower or pumpkin seeds.

The RDA for omega 3s is ridiculously low - you should consume omega 3s to 6s in a ratio of 1:1 to 1:4 (1:1 or 1:2 is best), so unless you consume no other fat for the entire day 10 grams of flax won't cut it. Even flax and chia seeds have considerable quantities of omega 6 fats (flax has a ratio of 3:1 omega 3 to 6), so you really need to be careful to make sure you get enough 3s. Almost every other plant fat has far more omega 6s then 3s.

[MysticTree]

Living foods. You talk about omega 3 & 6 ratios but then appear to give the ratios the wrong way round. Please would you edit your post to remove the ambiguity? :)

[Living Food]

I looked at my post again, but don't see the ambiguity - I said omega 3s to 6s should be 1:1 to 1:4, which is correct, then later said that flax had a 3:1 ratio of 3 to 6 - also correct. I thought that I might have compared 6s to 3s when talking about the flax (after I read your post), but I didn't.

Where's the confusing part?

[MysticTree]

Sorry, I am occasionally dyslexic with numbers. I read your post 5 times before posting just to be on the safe side. I do wish numbers wouldn't do that skipping about thing.

[MysticTree]

I've started some flax seeds sprouting. I hope to juice them when they have grown

[Living Food]

Sorry, I am occasionally dyslexic with numbers. I read your post 5 times before posting just to be on the safe side. I do wish numbers wouldn't do that skipping about thing.

I'll tell em to stop :)


I've started some flax seeds sprouting. I hope to juice them when they have grown

Great! Flax greens are one of the best. Up the wheatgrass a little and start juicing microgreens and we might make a sproutarian out of you yet :)

^ Just joking, I know you have no desire to go 100% sproutarian. Still, if every raw vegan started adding grasses and green sprouts to their diet it would make a huge difference for them.

[MysticTree]

No but I do enjoy sprouts and have a good handful in my evening meal. Most of the rest of the time I eat fruit. Come the winter home sprouting is going to be trickier. At some point I'm hoping to get a polytunnel but that will mean putting the sprouts out in the polytunnel during the day and bringing them in at night! Exhausting.

[Mrbenblue]

I like mine in smoothies (like the one I made today with chard, broccoli and mango: http://awesomeveganblog.com/2012/07/15/green-smoothie/). I've also dehydrated them into raw "crackers" with other veggies. And they're great ground up in the morning for breakfast, like on raw oat bran. Or, simply enjoy them on salads! So many possibilities :)

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

Come the winter home sprouting is going to be trickier. .

So true. The hardest sprout of them all in my area to grow is sunflower greens because of the wide varying temperiture. In the winter it gets very cold during the days and nights and they really struggle to thrive because they are a warm weather plant, it's almost touch and go all the way and l need to nuture them because they can easily die because they easily mold and deteriorate and grow all crazy. l have to soak the seeds for a much shorter time period, sometimes use hydrogen pyroxide and do a bunch of other tricks. l even bring one or two trays inside during the night to give them a much needed treat, and boy oh boy do they love it, but it is still really tough going. During the summer it is the opposite; when it is 40 degrees celcius they can be dead (wilted) within half a day, so on really hot days l must move them to sheltered areas under the house. They are a fair weather plant, so winter and extremely hot days make it very tough. Besides from struggling to keep them surviving during winter, they never quite shed their hulls, so l need to put them in water and pull them off after l harvest them.

The sunflower green is the most rewarding sprout to grow, but they are the most delicate. They get very thirsty and can easily die if they aren't watered at least once a day, this also makes it tough because in winter they can easily become water logged, so l must get air under the trays.

During the nice weather they are delightful to grow and they thrive and look beautiful, but right now during the winter, they are pale immitations of themselves.

Winter nuts thrive during the cold, peas thrive during the cold, and naturally cerial grasses thrive during the cold. Mung and adzuki are almost impossible to grow during the cold (especially adzuki) so l don't bother growing them, but fenugreek thrives in the cold. Sesame seeds and broccoli sprouts struggle in the cold, so l ALWAYS need to bring them inside for the first two days or put them in my sprout heater so that outside shell is able to be broken through.

So yes, each and every sprout has their own little personality and they can be stubborn during certain times of the year. Nearly all of them need to be treated differently like children of any family.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

putting the sprouts out in the polytunnel during the day and bringing them in at night! Exhausting.

lt can be hard work transferring various sprouts inside and out during the extreme weather. But in future l will put plastic around my sunflower green and chia shelves during the winter so it acts like a greenhouse. lf you aren't sprouting so many things, you can even make a clear plastic tent and place it near a tree during the winter, and you might be able to keep them outside all the time. When you need to water them, just put them on a trolly and wheel them all out togeather and water them.

[Living Food]

peas thrive during the cold

That's why I haven't been growing pea shoots recently - the temperature has been up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit around here!


fenugreek thrives in the cold.

Good to know.


broccoli sprouts struggle in the cold

I would have thought that they would do better in the cold because farmers + gardeners start the seeds when it's still cold out? I don't sprout much broccoli, though (too expensive), so I don't have much experience growing it in the cold.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

I would have thought that they would do better in the cold because farmers + gardeners start the seeds when it's still cold out? I don't sprout much broccoli, though (too expensive), so I don't have much experience growing it in the cold.

Broccoli does really well in the cold, but it needs some warmth to start the seeds off. Farmers probably do well with it because they plant the seeds in the ground to start with.

lt's amazing how much heat sprouts produce. Put cold water in a jar of sprouts for 30 minutes and see how warm it gets.

[MysticTree]

broccoli isn't really started in the cold. It's a crop that takes forever but does ok through cold weather so it's sown as early as possible whilst still warm enough for actual growing so that there are fresh greens in the winter.