With all of the attention swirling around genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we’ve been getting a heap of questions about our products and GMOs. Rest assured, at Bob’s Red Mill, we are committed to providing identity preserved products exclusively.

“Identity preserved” means that the seeds that were planted to grow our crops came from a non-GMO source. We work constantly with our farmers and suppliers to ensure that the ingredients we procure are non-GMO. In fact, each of our corn, rice, soy and flax suppliers is required to sign a statement which affirms that their ingredients come from non-GMO sources.

Planting identity preserved seed is just the first step in ensuring that products are non-GMO. That is why we have recently procured state-of-the-art testing equipment that allows us to begin our own in-house testing of our products. Our goal is to implement a testing protocol that is acute and prolific.

We hope you share our enthusiasm for keeping natural foods natural. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.

To Your Good Health,

How about a warm, comforting meal for dinner tonight? The warmth of ginger, turmeric, and coriander, combined with green chilies and a dash of cayenne bring a taste of India to your table. The creaminess of Chana Dal contrasts nicely with crisp zucchini for a dish that you’ll want to snuggle up to on these cold winter nights. Serve this hearty, heart-healthy dish with some warm Naan for an easy, satisfying dinner. 

Chana Dal with Zucchini

This recipe is adapted from Complete Book of Indian Cooking by Suneeta Vaswani.

•      1 cup Chana Dal Beans
•     2 Tbsp Oil
•     1-1/2 Tbsp Ginger Root, peeled and minced
•     2 tsp Green Chilies, minced
•     1 cup Onions, finely chopped
•     3 cups Zucchini, chopped
•     1 tsp Coriander powder
•     1/2 tsp Salt (or to taste)
•     1/2 tsp Tumeric
•     1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
•     14 oz canned Tomatoes, diced (with juice)

Directions

Soak chana dal in 2 cups cold water for 20- 30 minutes. Rinse and drain.

In a small sauce pan, heat oil over medium- high heat. Add ginger and chilies

and sauté for 1 minute. Add the onions and sauté until soft and translucent, 6 to 7 minutes.

Add zucchini and mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the coriander, salt, turmeric, and cayenne. Mix well and cook, stirring, 3 to 4 minutes making sure not to burn the spices.

Add the tomatoes with juice and chana dal with 2 cups water. Stir well. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer, covered. Stir every 10 minutes, until chana dal is soft. This should take 20-25 minutes depending on how old you chana dal is.

Lazy Saturday? Why not whip up a batch of these delicious, healthy muffins? Using a granular cereal gives these muffins a bit of bite while adding a beautiful flavor—not to mention the nutritional boost! Balancing the whole grains in the cereal by using white flour, keeps them light and delicious. Swap out the white flour for whole wheat pastry flour if you want a dense, whole grain muffin. If you don’t have our 6 Grain Cereal on hand, any whole grain granular cereal (like our Mighty Tasty or 10 Grain Hot Cereal) will do in a pinch.

Ruthie’s 6 Grain Muffins

•     1 cup Org 6 Grain Right Stuff Cereal
•     1-1/2 cups Sour Milk or Buttermilk
•     1/2 cup Sugar
•     1/3 cup Butter, soft (about 5 Tbsp)
•     1 Egg
•     1 cup Unbleached White Flour
•     1 tsp Sea Salt
•     1 tsp Baking Powder
•     1 tsp Baking Soda

Directions

Step 1

Mix cereal and milk; allow to stand for 10 minutes while preheating oven to 400°F and assembling other ingredients. Grease a 12 serving muffin pan or line pan with paper liners.

Step 2

Combine and sift dry ingredients. Cream sugar, butter and egg together. Add dry ingredients and milk with cereal to butter mixture. Stir only until mixed.

Step 3

Spoon into prepared muffin pan. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

Here at Bob’s Red Mill, we love good bread, especially when it’s made with whole grains.  Do you know what we love even more?  Good whole grain bread that has flavor, loft, chewy crumb and hearty crust.  Sure, you can throw together some flour, water, salt and yeast and make a perfectly acceptable loaf.  But with a little bit of natural action (known as fermentation) your loaf can go from good to extraordinary!

In this series, we’ll explore the different types of starters and how to use them, incorporating whole grains, to produce the best bread you’ve ever made.  Once you go starter, you’ll never go back!

You may ask yourself: what is a starter?  Answer: magic.  Kinda.  Starters are fermented cultures much like beer, wine, yogurt, kombucha, coffee and chocolate (betcha didn’t know about those last two, huh?).  The natural yeasts and bacteria that surround us in the air and on the surface of grains are allowed to grow and multiply and create a bubbly little environment that, due to their carbon dioxide output, will give your bread strength, moisture, extended shelf life, color, chewier crumb and fabulously complex flavors.

If starters seem a bit intimidating, using a preferment will be a great big baby step into the world of natural yeast cultures.  Preferments are similar to sours and levains and provide many of the same benefits.  They also have a limited life, so there is no obligation to remember to feed them and keep them alive.  Essentially, a portion of the flour, water and yeast are mixed and allowed to ferment for up to 48 hours before tossing it in with your bread dough.

Let’s begin with two of the easiest preferments:  pâte fermentée and sponges.

Pâte Fermentée, which sounds so fancy and sophisticated, is essentially old dough.  That’s right, old dough.  And it’s so easy!  If you bake bread daily or every-other-day simply pinch off 1 – 2 oz of dough per loaf and save it in the refrigerator.  The next day, toss that same ratio of dough into the fresh batch you’re currently mixing.  You are not going to notice a huge flavor boost but the gluten strength, moisture and crumb will definitely benefit.

A sponge is another super easy and approachable preferment.  With the sponge method, a portion of the flour, water and yeast are mixed together and allowed to sit at room temperature for 30 – 60 minutes.  This mixture will begin to rise just like bread dough and you will see a marked difference in the height of the final baked bread.  To use a sponge, follow this formula:  from your bread recipe use 30% of the total flour for the sponge.  Add an equal amount (by weight) of water and all or half of the yeast.  You’ll know your sponge is ripe and ready to use when the batter is slightly bubbly.  Add this sponge with your remaining liquid ingredients and proceed with your recipe as usual.

Bob’s Red Mill Rye Bread Mix made with the standard method (L) compared to the mix made with the sponge method (R).  The sponge method has more height, an even crust and a more open crumb.

Sponge

Prepare 30 – 60 minutes before baking.

Flour                30% of the total flour from your bread recipe

Water              equal weight as 30% of total flour

Yeast               50 – 100% of total yeast

From farm fields to our facility and kitchens around the world, Bob’s Red Mill guarantees the quality and safety of our products every step of the way. This commitment really shows in our gluten free protocols, which include especially rigorous purity testing and processing products in a dedicated facility.

Quality. Integrity. Safety. Trust.

That is the Bob’s Red Mill promise.

Our commitment to quality begins at the source.

Bob accepts nothing but the highest quality ingredients and has put in place industry-leading quality assurance standards.

Each arriving shipment is thoroughly inspected, sampled and tested.

Because we’re committed to keeping Bob’s Red Mill foods natural, we built our own GMO testing lab with cutting-edge technology. Our staff scientists use state-of-the-art, German engineered equipment to test for the presence of GMOs.

We use a Farinograph to measure the performance of our flours, so we can be sure customers will have a successful baking experience.

The source of gluten free ingredients matters—that’s why we work with farmers who understand safe gluten free practices.

At our facility, we isolate our gluten free products and store them in dedicated silos.

We sample and test each gluten free shipment immediately upon arrival and continue testing throughout the entire process.

We meticulously test all products, including gluten free foods, to ensure purity.

All gluten free products must meet a standard of less than 20 parts per million of gluten.

Our quality control lab employs an R5 monoclonal antibody ELISA test to ensure maximum safety.

We regularly test samples from the packaging line to make sure customers are getting only the best gluten free products.

All gluten free goods are quarantined in a special waiting area until their safety and quality are confirmed by our quality assurance specialists.

All gluten free storage, milling, mixing and packaging is carried out in a dedicated facility used only for gluten free products.

We measure the level of enzyme activity in our finished products to make sure they will perform exactly how your customers expect them to.

Our Quality Assurance Team is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable in the industry.

Our chef tests each product to make sure it is delicious, dependable and easy to prepare.

Chef Sarah House is continually developing and refining recipes in the Bob’s Red Mill Test Kitchen.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We’ve shared this amazing recipe before, but we wanted to share it again in case you need a quick dessert for Valentine’s Day. I can’t even begin to tell you just how easy this pie is to whip up. It’s vegan and gluten free and, speaking from experience, it’s sure to fool your most skeptical chocolate pie lovers. The key is to be sure to process the tofu really well to get it very, very creamy. No one wants a pie with little bits of tofu floating around. This would be especially lovely topped with chocolate shavings and fresh raspberries for Valentine’s Day.

Chocolate Silk Pie with Almond Crust
recipe by Chelsea Lincoln

Filling:

• 2 – 12.3 oz pkgs Mori-Nu Silken Tofu (Extra Firm)*
• 1-1/2 cups vegan Chocolate Chips, melted
• 3 Tbsp Sugar

Almond Crust:

• 2 cups Almond Meal/Flour
• 1 Tb Cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
• 3 Tbsp Sugar
• 1/4 cup vegan Margarine
• 1 Tbsp Soy Milk

Filling:  Melt the chocolate chips either in the microwave or the stove top.  Use low heat and stir to a smooth consistency.  Place all ingredients including the melted chocolate in a food processor.  Blend until smooth.  *Any brand of silken tofu will work but this tends to be most commonly found in grocery stores.

Almond Crust: Mix together almond meal, cornstarch, sugar and salt.  Pour melted margarine and soy milk into mixture and use a fork to combine.  Pat almond mixture into 9-inch pie pan.  Pour blended pie filling on top of crust, cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

What:

Bob’s 84th birthday party! We’ll have cupcakes and live music to celebrate our founder’s 84th year. There will be special gifts for the first 500 guests. Come have lunch and stay for the party.

When:

Friday, February 15th, 2013 from noon to 2 pm.

Where:

Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Store
5000 SE International Way
Milwaukie, OR 97222
Map & Directions

Can’t make it? Leave a birthday greeting here or on our Facebook page and we’ll make sure he sees your message.

Arancini are little fried rice balls typically stuffed with cheese and meat. This traditional Italian food is usually made with white rice, but our Label Content Manager, Michelle (who also writes the beautiful blog Je Mange la Ville) came up with this version using millet for a delectable whole grain treat. Arancini take a little time, but these are worth every minute! Delight your special someone (or someones) on Valentine’s Day by serving these with a green salad and a wholesome soup. (If millet is hard to come by, try our version using Steel Cut Oats.)

Spinach and Lemon Millet Arancini

(makes 10-12 golf ball-sized arancini)

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 small Shallot, finely diced
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• ½ cup Millet
• ¼ cup White Wine
• ¼ cup frozen Spinach
• ½ tsp Lemon Zest
• 1-3/4 cup low-sodium Vegetable Broth
• ¼ cup Parmesan Cheese
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 Egg, separated
• 10-12 small cubes (about ¼-square inch each) fresh Mozzarella
• ¼ cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/3 cup Italian Herb Breadcrumbs

Heat olive oil in a pot and sauté shallot and garlic over medium heat, until soft and starting to color, about 5 minutes. Add the millet and toast for 2-3 minutes.

Add the wine, spinach, lemon zest and broth to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer until liquid is absorbed and millet is soft and a bit creamy, about 20-25 minutes. Stir in Parmesan cheese and add salt and pepper to taste. Let cool.

Add egg yolk to cooled millet mixture and using a small ice cream scoop, scoop some millet into your hand. Add a small cube of mozzarella to the center, rolling the millet around the cheese to form a ball. Repeat with the remaining millet.

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Have flour, bread crumbs and whisked egg white set out in bowls, with a parchment-lined, non stick spray-coated baking sheet nearby. Roll each arancini in the flour, then the egg, and then the bread crumbs. Set on the baking sheet and repeat with each arancini. Spray arancini with non-stick, olive oil spray.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Cool 1-2 minutes before serving.

Deep Fry Option:  Add about 3 inches of vegetable or peanut oil in a large pan with tall sides. Heat oil to 350°F. Fry arancini until golden, about 3-4 minutes. Let cool briefly (about 2 minutes) before serving.