I’ve mentioned a number of times that I soak most of my grains and flours in order to reduce the phytic acid level. The reason for that is when the phytic acid is present in a food, it binds with the nutrients and minerals and sucks it out of your body. Which in turn means that regardless of how healthy you think the ingredients you’re eating are, the actual nutrition your body can use is much less than it technically would seem ‘on paper’.
I was recently asked once again for alternatives to soaking grains that don’t require whey. I often use yogurt or kefir, but that doesn’t work for those who prefer not to use dairy. Raw apple cider vinegar and lemon juice are other options I’ve tried, which work fine but I’ve been less than thrilled with the taste. I recently learned about another option from Stephan Guyanet and after trying it out, thought I’d share it here with you. He suggested it specifically for brown rice but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work for any grains and I’ve used it so far for brown rice and barley.
The basic idea of this soaking method is that you’re ‘growing’ your own acidic medium, and the process reminds me of how you grow your own sourdough starter. The main difference is you’re soaking whole grains rather than flour, but the process is essentially the same. Though it sounds kind of tedious it’s really not; it’s just a couple of extra steps in the beginning and then you have your acidic medium to soak your grains in from then on.
First of all, put the grain you’ll be using in a bowl and fill it with water (ideally unchlorinated – if you don’t have a filter, you can let it sit overnight to let the chlorine evaporate). Let the soaking grain sit in a warm place for about 24 hours. In the past I’ve always left it at room temperature, but since in the winter our house is cooler than in warmer seasons (obviously!) and warmth is important when soaking grains , I put it on the lowest temp in my dehydrator for a while and then let it sit overnight in the dehydrator after I turned it off.
When you pour off the soaking liquid, reserve about a cup of the liquid and put it in a jar in your fridge (this is your ‘starter’). Now cook your grain in fresh water.
The next time you’re going to make prepare grains, soak it the same way as before, but this time add the water you reserved. This liquid has the beginnings of good microorganisms growing, and they will hasten the growth of more microrganisms in this second batch. These bacteria secrete phytase, which are essential in breaking down phytic acid. Again, siphon some of this liquid off after the grain has soaked for 24 hours, before draining it and cooking the grain in fresh water.
Every time you soak your grain, add some of this reserved liquid. And each time you finish the soaking process, save some liquid for the next time. Each time you do this process the liquid becomes more potent, and Stephan wrote that after doing this a few times, eventually your homemade acidic medium will break down 96% of the phytic acid in your grain (after 24 hours of soaking). In case you haven’t read the percentage of phytic acid that is generally left in grains even after soaking (and I’m assuming most people aren’t like me and don’t read those things for fun :)), it’s a surprisingly high amount. So this soaking process will result in a dramatic increase in nutritive value.
You can keep this soaking water in your fridge for a long time. Basically you’ll use it similarly to how you use any other acidic medium, just by adding a small amount to the liquid you use for soaking. I’ve been cultivating my ‘liquid starter’ for three batches so far, and the grain doesn’t have the sour taste you tend to associate with apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. I expect that it will get more tart with increased bacterial growth, though, so I’ll have to see if/ how much the flavor changes with time.
(This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.)
Avivah
Thank you for this method. I can’t wait to try.
One thing I’m wondering- oats don’t have phytase acid in it, right? So would I need to add anything else to the oats while soaking?
If I do this, will this acidic medium have any bad bacteria that would need to be cooked out, or would I be able to eat my soaked oats raw after this, as I like to do?
I was about to ask about appropriate methods for soaking oats to be eaten raw. Now I usually soak my muesli overnight in the liquid I’ll be eating it with (I top this up in the morning): milk, juice, or water, if we’re out of the other two. I know without phytase this isn’t necessarily helping reduce phytic acid, but it does digest more easily. (Plus the dried fruits plump up nicely.)
Since oats don’t have any phytase, it’s best to soak them with a small amount of freshly ground wheat flour, which is high in phytase (I learned this from Amanda from http://www.rebuild-from-depression.com/ in her free e-course). I think this is a good thing to do even if you’re not cooking the oats – since the soaking is what is most important to dephytinizing.
Hope that helps!
Scratch that. Oats don’t contain any phytase to neutralize the phytic acid, so would I be able to soak them in this prepared soaking starter?
When you use this, do you just add this starter to water, or to yogurt or something?
This is really interesting. I’ve got a feeling the water will become sour after time due to bacteria that may start to culture it. I reckon you can use water kefir to do this aswell. I might give this a go sometime with water kefir.
That is Amazing!
The ‘sourdough’ soaking is so much more suitable since it’s the same medium (flour), already broken down by the culturing. I’m going to do this.
Hi Avivah –
I just wanted to let all the Baltimore people know the Giant in the plaza ( only in the plaza not the one on Old Court) Has Kedem grape juice 2.50 for a 64 oz bottle and Kedem apple juice also Kosher for Pesach 1.50 for a 64 oz. bottle
Devoiry
this sounds so similar to lacto-fermentation, with water, just without the salt.
so, you can use the water from one kind of grain to another, right? I can soak rice, and then save some acidic medium and use it on barley, or wheat? how about rolled oats or quick oats? Or just whole oats?
can you soak flour from the store? is that needed?
Is there any possibility of this going bad? How would you know if it went bad?
Thanks, Shira
My dairy-free method of soaking is to soak with lemon juice or ACV and then to rinse the grain before prep to remove the lemon or vinegar flavor. I do this with oatmeal every night with my kids because we usually have meat for dinner so I need a parve night-time snack. I also do it with rice and beans. Oats have more phytates that almost any other grain, so they should be soaked for a full 24 hours (but not much more b/c they start to really ferment and get an off smell and flavor!)
I’ve heard about this method before. It’s good to know that it’s working so well for you! Great post.
Michelle – welcome! I think you’re right; I’m also expecting it will get more sour.
Anita – hi and welcome!
Devoiry – I appreciate the heads up on the super price and am sure others will, too! It’s the time of year that I stock up on grape juice for the next six months.
Shira – you’re right, all fermentation has the same common principle. a) You can use the liquid from one grain to another. b) You definitely should soak flour from the store. c) If this went back it would smell terrible and you’d figure it out pretty fast!
Emily – welcome! I never thought of rinsing the grains before cooking them; that would definitely help the sour flavor. What a brilliant suggestions – thanks, I’m going to try it!
Alyss – welcome and I’m glad you liked the post. 🙂
so, how do you get the liquid out of the flour if you’ve soaked it? or do you somehow just figure out how much water you added and subtract that from what you add to the recipe? will the flour just soak up the liquid?
How about beans and nuts and seeds? I’ve been wondering what you soak them in, and if there is a way to dry out the nuts/seeds without a dehydrator? can you soak these things in the same water from the grains?
Interesting. I’ve been thinking about starting to soak grains, thanks for more info!
Hi, Local Cook, and welcome! Soaking grains sounds intimidating but it’s a great thing to start to do. Just start with one thing, though, otherwise it could feel kind of overwhelming.
Michelle is right. I’m pretty sure the Water Kefir would work better in this, as it has already pre-fermented, & won’t go bad so quickly.
Dom has a recipe for water kefir sourdough bread, & a friend of mine even uses her plain water kefir for making normal bread in her bread machine.
*Emily> lacto-fermented oats (a few days, covered in the fridge) are really good. Before you eat just add raw cream, raw honey, chia seed & the rest. And you’ll get such **good bacteria & digestive enzymes** in the morning:)
I think this will stay good for a long time, but isn’t it wonderful that there are so many great options?
What happens if you just soak in plain water without an acidic medium?
Also, after some browsing I found various times for soaking each type of grain . I had been under the impression that 12-24h was the norm for all grains.
So what’s the right thing to do?
It needs an acidic medium to break down the phytic acid, so without it, not much is accomplished. 24 hours at room temperature is considered ideal for most grains, but overnight/12 hours is still very helpful.
Do you know if the phytic acid will break down if I allow a very long rise time for my bread? I have been soaking my flour for a while, but I don’t enjoy coming back to a solid mass into which I must work more ingredients. So last night I mixed and kneaded my bread dough (adding some apple cider vinegar) and let it rise overnight in the refrigerator, hoping it would do its work like before. I’ve looked all over the internet and can’t find this question addressed anywhere.
I’m not an expert on phytic acid, but since warmth is an important component, I don’t think that overnight in the fridge will significantly break it down. However, it’s possible that if you were to do the same thing but leave it in a warm part of your kitchen it would be much more effective. I do think that a long rise time is helpful to some degree, though, even without the warmth. When I have a chance I’ll look through some info I saved on the topic and see if I can get any clearer on this. If I do, I’ll come back to share it with you here.
thanks!
That is along the lines of sourdough bread! It is left on counter for a few days.