Cassava Flour Beijus
A recipe by Neide Rigo, Brazil
About Niede Rigo
Niede Rigo is a nutritionist and has always been interested in food culture and little-known, forgotten, or devalued ingredients. She is a member of Slow Food, participated in a project giving workshops for lunch ladies in the wilderness of Bahia, was the curator of the project Comer é Mais, in Sesc Belenzinho, for three years; and the project Comer é Panc, at Sesc Pompeia in 2018. You can read her work on her blog, Come-Se, on Instagram, and also in her column Nhac, in the Paladar section of the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo.
What inspires you to eat less meat?
About thirty percent of grain planted is intended to feed livestock, which consumes a considerable slice of the earth’s resources, such as arable land and forest, in addition to water. And today, no one can claim ignorance about the need to eat dishes with less animal proteins and a greater diversity of vegetables. These foods contribute to our healthier and a more sustainable world.
Beijus
Beijus are indigenous specialties usually made with some sort of cassava product. They are always flattened like Mexican tortillas. The most popular are the tapioca beijus made with pure starch from the root, also known as gum or tapioca. But there are beijus of various forms, dried in the fire or under the sun, drier or more humid, with fermented or unfermented cassava dough, with dough mixed with the gum, in various combinations with nuts, peanuts, coconut, etc.
I like to make the beijus from dough — which is nothing more than the grated root, squeezed well to extract all the juice. Only the resulting dough is used. It is an inexpensive, energetic, and nutritious food that replaces bread with advantages. In addition to being delicious, it has consistency and can be used to make sandwiches or as a base for various types of toppings. What I usually do, to not waste food, is to add the leftovers to the juicer when I make carrot, beetroot, and other juices. Or, I grate these vegetables and squeeze — the nectar, mix with lime, orange juice, and passion fruit juice, for example, and make a juice to accompany the beijus. What was squeezed, I mix together with the cassava flour I buy at the farmers market — usually sold to make cakes with sugar, eggs, milk, butter, and cheese. Thus, colored beijus satisfy children and adults without the need for any other animal ingredient and serve the most diverse food intolerances, since it is vegan, sugarless, gluten-free and flavored. I’m sure it will not be such a sacrifice to exchange appetizing cakes for delicious and healthy beijus — for us and for the planet!
Cassava flour beijus
Ingredients
1 pound peeled cassava
Salt to season
Optional Toasted or ground peanuts or other nuts (+/- 1 cup to every 500 g of dough)
For coloured beijus:
2 tbsp grated beets (red)
2 tbsp grated carrots (orange)
2 tbsp grated coconut (white)
4 tbsp Barbados gooseberry plant leaves (green)
Method
Finely grate and squeeze 1 pound of peeled cassava onto a cloth. Discard the liquid. Crumble what remains in the cloth and pass through the grates of a frying basket, so the dough is well separated into pieces. Or buy the dough already grated and squeezed if you can find it sold as such.
Season the dough with 1 teaspoon of salt and sieve over an unseasoned skillet, making a layer about 1 centimeter thick, or so. Over low heat, cook for about 3 minutes. Turn over and cook on the other side. If you like, you can cover the skillet to cook the beiju evenly and keep it more flexible. An omelet maker also works well.
To mix up the flavor, add toasted and ground peanuts or any chopped nuts in the ratio of +/- 1 cup to every 500 g of dough.
For coloured beijus, divide the dough into 4 parts. Add 2 tablespoons of grated beets and squeezed in to make a red beiju; the same amount of carrot grated and squeezed into for orange; 2 tablespoons of grated coconut for white; and 4 tablespoons of finely chopped Barbados gooseberry plant leaves for the green. In all cases, pass through a very thick sieve or fryer basket allowing it to drop directly into the frying pan so that the beijus become fluffier.
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neiderigo/
