Teffin' Brilliant by Emma

Teff grain

As you may have noticed I have a bit of a thing about super grains at the moment. I love trying new things, as I have mentioned, so when I googled across an article on the new super grains I had to try a few. Teff was the first of the "new" ancient grains in the article so it seemed like the logical one to begin with. Teff is a grass seed that is native to Ethiopia. These seeds are really diddy, about the size of a poppy seed, in fact the name roughly translates as "lost" in Ethiopian. It is used to make Injera which is sourdough flatbread and is the national dish of Ethiopia. Due to its importance as a staple food to the population the government of Ethiopia don't allow it to be exported so it is now being farmed in Europe.

Cooked Teff with onion

Nutrition wise it is similar to other protein rich grains like quinoa and millet. It is a rich source of iron (100g dried weight contains 42% of your recommended intake of iron) and is also rich in magnesium, and vitamin B6. Teff is way out ahead of all grains in how much calcium is has in it, like miles ahead. Another awesome thing about this groovy grain is that it is gluten free, whoop! 40% of the carbs in Teff are resistant starches.What are resistant starches? Well, as we all know from school (ha) starches are long chains of glucose and resistant starch is a type of starch that, yep you guess it, is resistant to being digested. So like fibre it just bobs along through your digestive system keeping you feeling fuller and giving you a little internal clean. Studies have shown that it helps lower blood sugar, reduces hunger, helps with weight control and digestive health.

Teff grains with sesame seeds for scale

So anyway I found some and wanted to try it out. You can make porridge and the injera with it but, me being me, I wanted to try something different so opted to make burgers. I found a recipe from Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods and adapted it to make it Slimming World friendly and funked it up a bit in the process. Oh and I'm waiting to hear back from Slimming World but I'm pretty sure it's synfree as nutritionally it's nearly the same as quinoa (the closest thing I can think of to it) but with less fat and calories.  I put it through the calculator as quinoa and it came out as free.
Teff Burgers
(Makes 6 burgers)

Teff Burgers ready to cook

Each burger is Synfree on Slimming World or 3 ProPoints on Weight Watchers
190g Teff Grain
700ml vegetable stock (I used 1 stock cube mixed with 700ml of water
1tsp Cumin powder
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
1tsp Garlic granules
1/2tsp Ground Ginger
1/2tsp AllSpice
1/2tsp Black Pepper
1/2tsp Chilli Powder

1 Small Red Onion, finely diced2 Spring Onions, finely diced

Wack everything but the onions in a saucepan, bring to the boil, cover and then simmer for 15-20 mins. Take it off the heat when it is the consistency of thick porridge.

Stir in the onions and leave to cool. Once cooled enough to handle, shape into 6 burgers (I used a burger press with waxed paper discs to separate). I then left them in a fridge to firm up for a few hours. 

Heat a frying pan, spritz each patty with frylight and then "fry" on a low heat until the slightly browned on each side.

I served mine on large flat mushroom "buns" with a salad and carrot chips. The burgers were delicious. My husband loved them and my 2 year old sang his "nom nom nom" song the whole time he was eating (normally only reserved for olive eating and malteaser munching)

UPDATE FROM SLIMMING WORLD

"We are pleased to let you know that Teff and Amaranth, when eaten as the whole grain, can be considered a Free food. If you process the grains, such as milling to flour, blending or grinding, they lose their Free food status and will need to be counted as Syns, much like other grains listed in your Food Optimising Book."