Rice Flour: A Gluten-Free Product Perfect for Making Mouthwatering Pasta

With so many flour options available in the supermarkets, choosing the most suitable type becomes a bit challenging. In the old days, a simple meal of dal, wheat roti and vegetable is enough for providing nutrition. Nowadays, people look for healthier alternatives especially if they are allergic to gluten. So, if you are looking for a gluten-free and healthier alternative to wheat roti, buy rice flour and relish its roti with both curries and meat.

It is a gluten-free flour procured from ground rice. As the cases of gluten allergies are rising, people are looking for food items that are gluten-free and healthy. Fortunately, rice flour meets both criteria. Widely used in Southeast Asian countries like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, it is one of the versatile ingredients used for preparing sweets and other delicacies. You can buy rice flour online in the UK in large quantities to prepare rice noodles, rice cakes and even add them in soups. Besides versatility, this flour offers numerous health benefits right from enhancing liver health, reducing cholesterol levels to improving digestive health. In many recipes like sauces and noodles, it is used as a thickening agent. The main advantages of using rice flour are it is easily available everywhere (even in the UK groceries) and inexpensive also.

If you are making a purchase from a brick and mortar store, you will found this flour in a gluten-free section of the supermarket. Moreover, you will find three different kinds of rice flour which are as follows:

1. Brown Rice Flour: It is one of the healthiest food options. During the grinding process, the removal of bran does not take place. To add further, it is not milled finely and therefore has a coarse texture and taste. Having a nuttier flavour, it is often used interchangeably with white rice flour and in those recipes which require bolder earthier flavour.

2. White Rice Flour: It is milled by using long or medium rice grains without removing the bran. The coarseness of the white rice flour varies from one brand to another.

3. Sweet Rice Flour: Sweet rice flour is milled from short-grain rice commonly known as sticky rice. This flour contains high starch content and commonly added as a thickening agent in sauces and noodles. Though it is sweet rice flour, it has a mild flavour but not sugary sweet.

Rice Flour v/s Wheat Flour

Talking about nutritional value, both the flours have similar composition and contain vitamin E, niacin, riboflavin and thiamine. However, wheat flour contains a higher percentage of folate. On the other hand, rice flour contains yeast in lesser quantity than wheat flour which makes it more suitable for baking rather than cooking.

Dish Worth Trying with Rice Flour

The granular texture and the lightweight of the rice flour add more crunch to dishes like cutlets. Though you can try ample dishes like cookies and cakes with rice flour, gluten-free pasta is easy and quick to make as it requires only a handful of ingredients. Let’s take a quick look at the ingredients required and its recipe.

Ingredients Required: 1 ½ cup of brown rice flour, ½ cup of potato starch. 2 tsp of Xanthum gum, 4 eggs and 1 tsp salt.

Recipe:

• Whisk all ingredients i.e. potato starch, brown rice flour, salt and Xanthum gum.
• Take 4 eggs in another bowl and whisk them.
• Now, blend the eggs with a flour mixture. You can even blend them with your hands and knead the dough in the way prepared for rotis.
• Make small balls from the dough. If required, add little oil while preparing balls.
• Now is the time to use pasta making machine for taking out thin strips. If you do not have this machine, you should simply roll the paste dough balls and try to make thin strips from them.
• Boil the thin strips with salt and water and try to consume the very same day.

Where to Buy Rice Flour Online in the UK?

Fortunately, it is one of the gluten-free items easily available in a reputed convenience or grocery store. You can easily find the flour in both online and offline stores at inexpensive rates. In the marketplace, you will find different brands of rice flour but prefer choosing very finely rice flour so that it can mix with other ingredients easily.