Feel like a sauce, but don’t feel like eating a roux, or do you want to avoid using flour in your sauce altogether? Do not despair, there are many tricks to avoid flour in the dish. Come and see them with us.
Czech cuisine is full of delicious sauces, the basis of which is roux. After all, even classic dill can hardly do without flour. Oh, yes? In recent years, white flour has found itself on nutrition experts’ radar as an unhealthy food. In addition, there are also those who cannot have flour in their diet due to health reasons. How do you enjoy the treasures of Czech cuisine and avoid flour?
Some foods thicken naturally on their own. There is no need to add flour to them.
There are many variables
The healthiest thickener is naturally vegetable. It can be perfectly combined with a lot of sauces, so that after mixing it becomes thick enough and, moreover, does not smell. An honest person doesn’t know that something is different. You might be surprised, but even white sauces, which you definitely wouldn’t say, can be thickened in this way. How to do this, watch the video:
For a dill or horseradish sauce, use peeled zucchini and white beans to thicken the texture. Simply cut the zucchini into larger cubes and fry them in a little butter or oil. Fill it with water or broth, pour in a can of white beans (drain the water from them beforehand) and bring to a boil. Once the zucchini is tender, use a ladle to remove most of the liquid and mix the zucchini with the beans. Depending on the consistency, add the zucchini broth to make a creamy sauce. In the case of dill, season as usual with vinegar, salt and sugar, adding fresh dill at the very end. In the case of horseradish, pour the grated horseradish into the sauce, mix and adjust the intensity of the spiciness.
Potatoes can do it all
Potatoes are perhaps one of the most versatile foods out there. If you don’t like legumes, or if this is a type of dish that can’t be mixed in the end, use finely grated potatoes. The starch in the potatoes naturally loosens and thickens the sauce. This is a great way to thicken goulash, for example. But remember that potatoes need their time, so don’t add them to your dish at the last moment.
Thanks to its neutral taste, zucchini is really versatile. Thicken sauces with it, or use it when baking pastries.
Vegetables not only as a side dish
You can make a great presentation with the vegetables themselves. The joke is that if you add more to her dish than she’s used to, she will naturally thicken the sauce on her own. The best vegetables to do without are carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, and pumpkin. Svíčková explicitly calls for such a procedure, adding more root vegetables to the base and mixing in at the end. The creaminess of the sauce is given by the cream and the butter cube, which you mix into the dish at the end of preparation. Tomatoes can also be cooked without flour if you use canned tomatoes and blend them.
Chickpeas, or Roman peas, taste bland, but delicious. Feel free to use it in place of flour in sauces or soups.
healthy legumes
Legumes also have a great thickening property. Thanks to them, the dishes are creamy and healthy. If you use white beans, chickpeas, or red lentils, they won’t smell much in the last dish, so they’re well camouflaged. Otherwise, use whatever legumes you prefer. If you start with the classic lentil soup, mix in some legumes. There will be no need to thicken the soup with flour. This also applies to lentil or pea porridge.
Gluten free cereal
Recently, the so-called false grains have become more and more popular. These include, for example, Guinoa. It has a neutral nutty taste and helps thicken a dish, especially soup. You can also try amaranth or millet. If you are afraid to try something new right away, start gradually, for example with rice. You can have different ground rice flour and you can have a lot of fun with it in the kitchen.
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