Cornmeal is a food product obtained by grinding the grains (or grits) of corn. It is used for making drinks and baking, breading meat or fish and as a thickener for soups or sauces, for making noodles or porridge.
This is a frequently used product not only among nutritionists, but also among cosmetologists. It is included in cleansing and nourishing creams.
Corn flour contains a lot of calories (100 g contains 331 Kcal), but if used in moderation, it can become our ally in weight loss. It is also an excellent source of vitamins B5, B1, C, manganese, phosphorus, folic acid, dietary fiber and protein (60%).
What is useful for weight loss
- Corn flour contains carotenoids. These are antioxidants known as anthocyanins that can burn fat cells.
- The fiber included in the composition ensures a feeling of fullness for a longer period, since it takes more time to digest. A restrained appetite does not require snacking between main meals.
- Another advantage is the presence of resistant starch in the product.
- It also contains pantothenic acid and vitamins (A) and (B), which enhance the digestibility of proteins and carbohydrates, improve digestion and metabolic processes, and have a positive effect on weight stabilization even in diabetics.
Gluten Free Pear Corn Muffins
We need:
- 3 pears (0.5 kg)
- 8 – 10 pieces of quail eggs
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tsp baking powder, heaped
- 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tbsp. corn flour
- 1 tbsp. gluten-free flour
Preparation:
1. Peel the pears, remove seeds and core, cut into pieces and place in a blender bowl.
2. Send quail eggs mixed with olive oil to the pears and beat with a submersible blender, 2-3 minutes until smooth.
3. We also send baking powder here, mix in 1 cup of corn and gluten-free flour, mix and pour in lemon juice.
Mix the whole mixture thoroughly again and place it in silicone molds.
4. Preheat the oven for 10 minutes to a temperature of 200 degrees and bake for 35 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the molds while they are hot and cool on a wire rack.
The benefits of corn flour
Improves digestion and metabolism The content of dietary fiber promotes good digestion and better cleansing of the intestines from toxins. Which is good for preventing the development of colon cancer.
Used for celiac disease Does not contain gluten and therefore serves as a good alternative to wheat flour for people with celiac disease.
Benefits for the intestines Thanks to the large amount of fiber (per 100 g of flour - 4.36 g of fiber), it supports normal intestinal functioning, prevents constipation, helps with symptoms of irritable bowel, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
For the skin With regular use, it improves the condition and color of the skin.
For blood vessels Strengthens blood vessels, lowers the level of “bad” cholesterol, and prevents the formation of cholesterol plaques.
For bone tissue Helps maintain the acid-base balance of the body thanks to the phosphorus contained, has a beneficial effect on bone tissue.
For muscles Contains enough protein (60% in corn), which helps strengthen muscle tissue.
For anemia The high amount of iron content makes it useful for anemia.
For cholecystitis Due to its choleretic properties, it is useful for diseases of the gallbladder. The only exception is gallstone disease.
Boosts immunity Flour contains a lot of selenium, which improves immunity, thereby helping to fight colds and viral diseases, and has a positive effect on male fertility.
Purifies the blood Maize flour contains palmitic acid and niacin. These acids cleanse the blood of toxins and improve its performance.
Warning:
- During the growth period, the plant can accumulate nitrates, which are far from beneficial for our body. And flour can be affected by yellow mold, which contains many carcinogenic substances. That is why you should not buy flour from unscrupulous sellers, which is past its expiration date or damp.
- A high-quality product must be hermetically packaged, have a delicate yellow color and not contain foreign inclusions. After opening the package, the product must be stored in a glass, tightly closed container. With high humidity, flour quickly becomes moldy and acquires an unpleasant rancid taste.
Boiled corn: can you eat it while on a diet? What happens if you eat corn for dinner before bed?
Recommendations from nutritionists
When comparing flour made from different grains, it is noted that corn flour is low in calories. It is used quite actively for weight loss. You can prepare a wide variety of dishes and use them in baking bread and pastries.
Nutritionists recommend eating corn flour for weight loss in the first half of the day. They note that such food actively interacts with liquids. Swells noticeably, filling the stomach and intestines, causing a feeling of fullness. Appetite appears only a few hours after breakfast. All this time the person does not experience hunger.
See on the same topic: Delicious tofu as a replacement for cottage cheese during a diet
The armed forces also actively use porridge made from corn grinding. They occupy a worthy place in the fighters’ diet. Therefore, corn processed products are also recommended for people with high physical activity.
Dietary recipes made from corn flour
Hominy
Medium-ground corn flour – 400 g Salt – to taste Water – 1 l. 300 ml
Cooking:
- Pour water into a thick-walled casserole, bring to a boil and add flour in a thin stream, stirring, and add salt.
- Cook for about thirty minutes, stirring constantly until completely thickened.
- Then turn the cauldron onto a plate.
- Cut the mamalyga into portions.
- Pour low-fat kefir on top and sprinkle with low-fat feta cheese or cottage cheese.
Mexican drink champurrado with chocolate
Finely ground corn flour – 2 teaspoons. with a slide Low-fat milk – 500 ml Grated dark chocolate – 120 g Brown sugar (if desired) – 1 tsp.
Preparation:
- In a glass, mix flour with a small amount of milk.
- Mix well to form a creamy mass.
- Pour the remaining portion of milk into a small saucepan and heat well, but do not bring to a boil.
- Remove from heat, add grated chocolate and a mixture of milk and flour to the milk, stir well until the chocolate dissolves.
- Then put on fire and cook until the mixture thickens slightly.
- Pour into cups and serve with a cinnamon stick.
Polenta
Corn flour – 250 ml Water – 750 ml Eggplant - 1 pc. Zucchini – ½ pc. Large white onion – ½ pc. Bell pepper – 1 pc. Tomato – 1 pc. Parsley – 3 sprigs Olive oil – 2 tbsp. lie Salt - to taste
Preparing vegetables:
- Peel the eggplant and cut into small cubes, also chop the rest of the vegetables.
- Pour olive oil into a frying pan, add onion and parsley, lightly fry.
- Then add the pepper, simmer a little, then add the eggplant and zucchini.
- Simmer for five minutes. Finally add the tomatoes.
- Simmer everything together for ten minutes.
Now let's start preparing the polenta:
- Pour water into a thick-bottomed cauldron, add one teaspoon of salt, and bring to a boil.
- Next, gradually add medium-ground flour into the water, stirring.
- You need to cook for about ten minutes, stirring constantly so that no lumps form.
- Once the polenta is ready, place it on a plate and place vegetables on top. Dietary polenta with vegetables is ready.
Cheesecakes with corn flour
Low-fat cottage cheese – 300 g Egg – 1 pc. Corn flour – 3 tbsp. lie Brown sugar – 1 tbsp. lie Vanilla – 1/3 tsp. Lemon zest - 1 teaspoon.
Preparation:
- Mix with cottage cheese, sugar and vanilla.
- Grind everything well until smooth.
- Next, add two tablespoons of corn flour and knead the dough.
- Form cheesecakes and roll in medium-ground corn flour (for this you need one tablespoon of flour as a breading).
Dietary corn flour bread
Corn flour - 1 tbsp. Sour milk – 1 tbsp. Sugar – 1 tbsp. lie Water – 1 tbsp. Ghee butter – 1 tbsp. lie Egg – 1 pc. Baking powder – 1 sachet Soda – ¼ tsp. Salt – ½ tsp.
Cooking method:
- Pour two tablespoons of flour into a bowl, pour in half a glass of boiling water, beat well, add sour milk and egg, mix well.
- In another bowl, mix the remaining flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and soda.
- Then mix everything together, add melted butter.
- Grease the mold and place the dough there. Bake until done.
- This bread contains much fewer calories than wheat bread and is considered dietary.
For a child
It is recommended to include cornmeal recipes in children's menus. This dry component will be an excellent replacement for wheat flour. Especially in baking. With a corn base, treats can be eaten even by young children with gluten allergies.
Syrniki
To make these cheesecakes even tastier for your child’s breakfast, you can include a variety of dried fruits in their composition. For example, dark or light raisins will fit perfectly into it. Be sure to choose seedless dried fruits, otherwise the treat will be ruined.
Ingredients:
- medium fat cottage cheese – 370-400 g;
- corn flour – 110-120 g;
- chicken eggs – 2 pcs.;
- beet sugar – 30-35 g;
- soda – 4-5 g;
- oil.
Preparation:
- In order for the cheesecakes to turn out fluffy and airy inside, you need to properly prepare all the stated components for them. For example, pour cornmeal into a large bowl using the finest sieve. The dry component should not form lumps.
- At the preparatory stage, it is recommended to rub the cottage cheese through a metal sieve. This will make the dairy product more smooth and tender. During the process, a bowl for the finished product is placed under the sieve with cottage cheese, and all actions are carried out with a silicone spatula or a regular spoon.
- The contents of raw eggs should be beaten with a hand whisk until fluffy white foam. Then you can pour this mixture into the cottage cheese. Be sure to grind the ingredients together very thoroughly.
- All that remains is to pour the sifted corn flour and sugar on top of the ingredients. It is also worth adding vanillin and soda to make the dough fluffy.
- After the next stirring, when the mass becomes homogeneous, you can start making cheesecakes. They should be small in size. Each piece must be rolled in the remaining cornmeal, and then placed in a preheated frying pan with a small amount of oil.
The cheesecakes will be fried until lightly browned on top and cooked inside. When the pieces become golden on one side, they need to be carefully turned over to the other with a wide spatula. Place the finished treat on paper napkins to remove excess fat. Afterwards you can serve cheesecakes with sour cream or condensed milk.
Flax crackers
Since children love cookies very much, you can prepare such a very healthy treat for them. It will not harm the intestines or contribute to excess weight gain. These healthy children's cookies are prepared with flax seeds. You can usually buy them in sections with nuts by weight.
Ingredients:
- corn and wheat flour - 1 tbsp.;
- milk – 130-150 ml;
- flax seeds and olive oil - 4 tbsp. l.;
- baking powder, salt and sugar - 1 tsp each.
Preparation:
- To begin with, two types of flour are sifted into a container of suitable size. You can simply immediately pour them into the dishes through a fine sieve.
- Add milk and olive oil to the dry ingredients on top. Next - send the remaining bulk ingredients according to the recipe.
- The next step is to move on to kneading the dough. As a result, it will turn out quite steep and dense.
- All that remains is to add flax seeds and repeat mixing. The additive should be evenly distributed throughout the entire mass. If you couldn’t find flax seeds, you can replace them with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, or any ground nuts.
- The resulting mass is rolled out into a large layer. Its width should be approximately 4-5 mm. Afterwards the base can be cut into small neat squares. Cookies will hardly increase in size during baking, this must be taken into account.
- The baking sheet needs to be covered with foil or parchment paper. On top - distribute all future crackers.
The treat will be prepared in an oven preheated to 190-195°. The whole process will take about 12 minutes. Try the cookies completely cooled. Then it will turn out crispy. By the way, such crackers can also be served as an addition to chicken broth and a variety of vegetable soups.
Recipes for sweet pastries without eggs, various options
If you do not use eggs when preparing any culinary masterpieces, you can add kefir to the dish and bake it not in the oven, but in a slow cooker.
The options can be very different. We will tell you about some of them.
Ingredients you will need:
- Flour - 200 gr
- Sugar - 100 gr
- Blueberries – 200 gr
- Vegetable oil - 8 tbsp. l.
- Water – 200 ml
- Slaked soda - 1 tsp.
- Cinnamon - 2 tsp.
Mix all the dry ingredients, add water, soda, thus preparing the dough, and at the very end add the berries.
Before doing this, wash them and roll them in flour. Pour vegetable oil into the dough and mix. After greasing the baking dish with oil, pour the dough into it and set it to bake for 45 minutes.
Tip: if you doubt your culinary abilities, you can first prepare baked goods without eggs, looking for each recipe with a photo.
Manna can take its place in your recipe book. It is this recipe for baking without eggs using only kefir that is traditional for the Slavic peoples.
The main binding component here will be flaxseed flour. It is especially useful if you are trying to lose weight.
To prepare you will need:
- Water – 300 ml
- Yeast - 5 g
- Semolina - 3 ½ tbsp. l.
- Flaxseed flour - 15 g
- Kefir – 110 ml
- Orange juice – 75 ml
- Sugar - 165 gr
- Lemon zest - 2 tsp.
- Olive oil – 210 ml
So, let's start cooking. First, warm up the water a little, activate the yeast in 100 ml for about 10 minutes.
Mix flour, semolina, sugar thoroughly with zest. Take another vessel, pour in the juice and water that remains, then olive oil, kefir.
Mix all the prepared ingredients, the last one should be the yeast solution.
After mixing everything thoroughly, leave to infuse for 8 hours, preferably covered with film.
Then you will find a swollen mass. Beat it with a blender for half a minute.
Now you can safely pour everything into the mold and put it in the oven for 50 minutes at 165 degrees.
Recipes for baking from yogurt without eggs are also a great option for your table. We would like to present you with delicious tea cookies that you can treat to all your guests.
To do this, take:
- Flour - 400 gr
- Sugar - 100 gr
- Yogurt - 2 tbsp.
- Vegetable oil - about 50 g, but always remember the principle of substitution: less oil, more yogurt
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice - 2 tbsp. l.
- Soda - half a tsp.
- Powdered sugar, maybe a little, just for sprinkling
- Butter for greasing the mold
You need to add sugar to the yogurt itself; if you want very sweet cookies, add more of it, but do not overdo it.
Add the butter there and beat the mixture with a mixer until it has a creamy texture. Extinguish the soda and add it to the finished product, then the flour.
It must be sifted, then the baked goods will be fluffy. Mix the dough with your hands.
If you add jam or berries, you can make a wonderful pie. Roll out the sheet and fit it under the baking sheet. Its thickness should be about half a centimeter. The oven should be preheated to 180 degrees in advance.
Grease a baking sheet with oil and bake. Take out the finished cookies, roll them in powder - an excellent dessert for tea is ready.
The next step is to create culinary delights from rice flour, these eggless baking recipes will simply win your heart.
- Rice flour - 2 cups
- Vegetable oil - 130 g
- Sugar - 180 gr
- Banana
- Apple
- Raisins – 200 gr
- Nuts - 100 g, you can choose the ones you like
- Half a teaspoon of cinnamon, salt, soda
- Pinch of cloves
At the beginning of cooking, sift the flour and at the same time mix it with the dry ingredients, holding back the sugar.
Grind butter, banana, sugar until smooth. Combine everything together, then mix well.
Prepare the fruits and nuts you have chosen. Soften the raisins, chop the apple and nuts, add to the dough.
Use special baking paper and start making small round cookies from the ready-made dough.
Send them to the oven, which was previously heated to 180 degrees, within 20 minutes they will be ready.
Homemade baking is always very tasty and healthy.
In this article, I will tell you how to make delicious corn fritters! After a good search on the Internet and cookbooks, I collected the most popular recipes. The cooking process is described in detail, step by step, with photos and videos. I am sure that some of what is offered will interest you!
Step by step recipe
Grind butter at room temperature with sugar. |
Add salt and eggs. Mix well. |
Add sour cream. Beat with a fork. |
Combine flour and baking powder and add to bowl with cream and egg mixture. |
Knead the dough; it should not stick to your hands. |
Roll out the dough 0.5 cm thick and cut out cookies with a cookie cutter. Dip each cookie in sugar. |
Place the cookies on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes. |
Corn cookies with coconut flakes
We need: 1 tbsp = 200 ml
- 1 piece egg
- 3-4 tbsp. Sahara
- 150 g sour cream
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp. corn flour
- a pinch of salt
1. Beat the egg with sugar and salt until white foam.
2. Add sour cream, baking powder and mix everything.
3. Gradually add the sifted flour and knead the dough, it should roll into a lump and not stick to your hands.
4. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and prepare sugar for coating the cookies. Form cookies, roll both sides in sugar and place on a baking sheet.
Bake in a preheated oven, up to 180 degrees, 15-20 minutes.
We need:
- 100 g butter (margarine), softened
- 2 eggs
- 120 g sugar
- 250 g corn flour
- 40 g coconut flakes
- 1 pack vanilla sugar
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 1 pack (10 g) baking powder
1. Beat butter, salt, sugar, vanillin for 2-3 minutes, add egg, coconut and mix.
2. Sift the flour with baking powder, mix with the butter mixture, knead the dough and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
3. Form balls from the dough, place on a baking sheet with parchment and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees.
Bon appetit!