Cooking with Teff 101

Introduction

Teff is the grain of the month in our ongoing Whole Grains 101 series.

What is Teff?

Teff nutritious ancient grain that has risen in popularity in recent years thanks to its gluten-free status.

It is the tiniest known edible grain and the word teff means “lost” in Amharic because it is so easy to lose.

Teff is even smaller than quinoa, a popular gluten-free pseudograin.

It ranges in color from ivory to brown to red.

Typically, in the United Sates, brown teff is the most easy to source.

You can find ivory teff as well but I have not seen a commercial U.S. source of red teff.

Where Does Teff Come From?

Teff is believed to have been cultivated in North East Africa over 6,000 years ago and this is the part of the world where 90% of teff continues to be consumed to this day – mainly in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Nowadays, thanks to its growing popularity, teff is grown in as diverse places as the Netherlands, India, Australia and the United States.

In fact, Idaho in the United States is now considered the second highest producer of teff in the world.

What Are the Nutritional Benefits of Teff?

Like all whole grains, teff is rich in fiber and B vitamins.

In addition, teff is one of the few grains to contain vitamin C.

Teff is also particularly rich in magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc.

Brown teff is known to be richer in iron while ivory teff is richer in copper.

Teff averages 11% protein, which is similar to wheat.

Because it is higher in the amino acid lysine than most other grains, teff is considered a complete protein.

Teff and Phytic Acid

Like most whole grains, teff is considered high in phytic acid which binds to minerals and reduces their bioavailability.

Soaking, sprouting and fermenting (discussed further below) are all recommended traditional methods for reducing phytic acid and optimizing digestibility.

What Does Teff Taste Like?

Cooked whole grain teff has a mild, nutty flavor similar to wheat.

Ivory teff has an even milder flavor profile than brown teff.

Unlike amaranth, a similar sized gluten-free pseudograin, teff doesn’t have a “grassy” taste.

It is closer in flavor to fonio, another tiny grain originally from Africa.

In contrast to fonio whose grains separate well, teff is stickier and is better used for applications such as porridges, puddings and polenta.

Teff is great combined with sweet or savory spices.

It pairs really well with chocolate, nuts and/or cinnamon.

Culinary Uses of Teff

Traditionally, teff was primarily used to make injera, the national bread of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Teff was also used to make fermented porridges and low alcoholic fermented beverages such as teff beer.

Nowadays, teff is often included in gluten-free flour mixes as well.

We will cover below the many ancient and modern ways, non alcoholic ways to use teff.

Sprouted Teff

Sprouting teff reduces its phytic acid content and optimizes the bioavailability of nutrients.

Therefore, you may want to sprout teff before cooking it.

Teff sprouts very quickly and you will see tiny shoots within 36 hours or less – especially in warmer ambient temperature.

Because of its tiny size, you will need a very fine mesh to not lose any grain – I use an old fine cotton handkerchief.

To sprout teff, you will need a wide mouth mason jar with two part metal lid and fine mesh cloth.

1. Soak teff in ratio of 1 part grain to 4 parts water for about 2 hours.
2. Cover mason jar with fine mesh and tighten with outer part of metal lid.
3. After two hours, place mason jar at an angle in your sink to drain off water – this can take a few minutes.
4. Once water has drained, shake mason jar so teff is spread out.
5. Rinse every 4 hours or so.
6. You will want to check for sprouts every time you rinse.
7. Sprouts are ready once a tiny green sprout emerges – about the length of the seed.

Teff Rejuvelac

Sprouted Teff can be soaked one to two days in water to make a healthy, gluten-free probiotic beverage called rejuvelac.

Teff rejuvelac has a very pleasant, bright flavor – not quite lemony but similar.

Because it also contains lactic acid, teff rejuvelac can also be used to make fermented gluten-free vegan nut cheeses.

A step by step rejuvelec recipe can be found here.

Teff Diastatic Malt

Diastatic malt is an enzyme rich, sweet powder that is often used in baking to add sweetness and accelerate the enzymatic conversion of starches into sugars.

With time, these very same enzymes also help break down phytic acid.

Therefore adding some diastatic malt to your baked goods will help make the nutrients more bioavailable.

Be aware that a little goes a long way when adding diastatic malt to recipes – usually 0.5% of diastatic malt to total weight of flour is recommended.

Sprouted teff can be used to make a gluten-free diastatic malt.

To turn sprouted teff into diastatic malt using a dehydrator is the most straightforward approach:

1. Spread out sprouted teff very thinly over a fine mesh, fine cotton cloth or even paper towel.
2. Dehydrate at 95° Fahrenheit for about 6 hours – until grains are completely dry.
3. Pulse dried teff sprouts in blender until ground into a flour – should take 30 seconds or less.

You will want to store you malt in an airtight, dark container and keep it in a cool, dry place.

Typically, it should keep for about a year.

If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can air dry your sprouted teff grains:

1. Simply place them on a fine mesh and allow to air dry at room temperature for at least a day.
2. Every few hours, you can stir the sprouted teff grains to ensure even drying.

Non Diastatic Teff Malt

Non diastatic malt is dehydrated at higher temperature ranges (between 120° Fahrenheit and 180° Fahrenheit) for varying lengths of time depending on the flavor profile desired.

If you are simply trying to add sweetness to your baked goods, then dehydrating the sprouted teff grains at 120° Fahrenheit for about 4 hours, using same instructions provided above for diastatic malt, is a good option.

Soaked Whole Grain Teff

If you don’t frequently consume teff or just like to use it in combination with other grains, soaking is not absolutely necessary.

In fact, most modern recipes for teff don’t mention soaking.

However, people who consume teff often do so because of digestive issues.

If that is your case, you are likely to want to consume teff in its most digestible form.

Soaking teff is helpful because it reduces the phytic acid present in the teff outer seed layer.

Reducing phytic acid helps the minerals in teff such as calcium and iron to become more bioavailable.

To soak teff:

1. Add one cup of water and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to each cup of teff grain.
2. Soak at room temperature overnight or up to 24 hours.

Once teff has been soaked, it can be cooked into a pilaf or porridge – cooking time can be reduced relative to unsoaked teff by about 5 minutes.

Soaking teff will add a slightly tangy flavor to the grain.

You don’t need to drain off the soaking liquid, instead add additional liquid to total the amount called for in the recipe.

Toasted Teff

Toasting teff is another option to reduce some of its phytic acid content and add an extra nutty flavor to the final product.

To dry toast teff:

1. Bring shallow pan to medium heat.
2. Add teff and toast for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon.
3. Once you smell a toasted aroma, to avoid burning:
   • remove from heat promptly and transfer to a cool container
   • OR immediately add cooking liquid and proceed with your teff recipe

Baside Boiled Teff

Teff simply be boiled and served as a side grain dish, just be aware it does tend to be on the sticky side.

To make 4 half cup servings of boiled teff:

1. Presoak 1 cup of teff overnight with 1 cup of water and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.
2. Bring ½ cup of water and a pinch of salt to a boil
3. Add pre soaked teff and simmer for 6 minutes.
4. Turn off heat.
5. Use fork to fluff teff.
6. Keep covered for 10 more minutes until water is fully absorbed.

Alternatives to soaking:

1. For a nuttier flavor, toast 1 cup of teff and increase water in step 2 to 1 ½ cups.
2. For a sweeter flavor, sprout teff grains and increase water in step 2 to 1 cup.

Fermented Teff Porridge/Polenta

Teff is delicious as a sweet or savory porridge/polenta and it is one of the best ways to use whole grain teff.

For a sweet version, use plant milk as your boiling liquid and serve with choice of sweetener, fruit and nut toppings.

For a savory version, use water or vegetable stock as your boiling liquid and add nutritional yeast, sauteed onions and savory spices of choice.

Stovetop Teff Porridge/Polenta

You will want to use at minimum a 3:1 ratio of liquid to teff.

To make 4 portions of fermented porridge:

1. Soak 1 cup of teff in one cup of water with a tablespoon over apple cider vinegar overnight or up to 24 hours at room temperature.
2. Bring 2 cups of liquid to a boil with a pinch of salt.
3. Add soaked teff.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Instant Pot Fermented Teff Porridge/Polenta

While the Instant Pot typically needs less water than the stovetop when cooking grains, I find it safer to use the same amount as the stovetop to prevent burning.

Therefore your porridge will not be as quite as thick as the stovetop version.

To make 4 servings:

1. Soak 1 cup of teff in one cup of water with a tablespoon over apple cider vinegar overnight or up to 24 hours at room temperature.
2. Add soaked teff, two cups liquid and a pinch of salt to Instant Pot.
3. Set Instant Pot to high pressure for 5 minutes and allow to natural release for 10 minutes.

Alternatives to soaking for stovetop and Instant Pot recipes:

1. For a nuttier flavor, toast 1 cup of teff and increase water in step 2 to 3 cups.
2. For a sweeter flavor, sprout teff grains and increase water in step 2 to 2½ cups.

Teff Flour

Because it is very small and soft, teff can easily be turned into flour by using a high speed blender set to high for 30 seconds to 1 minute at most.

It is usually best to process at most one cup at a time in your blender.

If you have a stone mill, mine is a (Komo Fidibus stone mill available through Pleasant Hill Grains) you will simply want to make sure you adjust it to the finest setting.

As for a micronizer mill, you will want to use the very smallest opening (feed rate) and run at high speed.

(To learn more about choosing a grain mill to mill your own flour, please see this guide.)

Uses of Teff Flour

Teff flour is most famously used for making injera bread – a type of sourdough flatbread traditional to the horn of Africa.

It is also frequently found in gluten-free flour mixes – adding protein and mild flavor to the blend.

Some people prefer to use ivory teff to make the flour mix more closely resemble white flour.

Others prefer earthiness of brown teff.

Jennifer Katzinger’s Flying Apron’s Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking book includes several combinations of teff flour with other flours such as oat flour.

Erin Alderson’s The Homemade Flour Cookbook also has a couple of flour mixes that include teff as well as sweet rice, cornstarch, arrowroot and sorghum.

A good online option for a gluten-free flour mix, with minimally processed ingredients, can be found in this post.

Teff Injera

Injera is a sourdough flatbread most often made with teff flour though sometimes it is also made with barley, sorghum, millet or even wheat.

I first tasted injera years ago in an Ethiopian restaurant.

The stew platter I ordered was served on top of the spongy injera flatbread.

I remember being shown how to tear off pieces of bread and use it to scoop off some stew – no utensils needed.

It was definitely a novel but tasty experience!

Making injera is most definitely an art.

For more than a week now, I tried making injera but sadly, so far, it was a fail.

While I was able make the sourdough starter easily, my batter did not hold up together enough for making the flatbread.

There are many recipes available online and from what I can tell, many people go through several trials and error before they get it right.

This link provided by the Maskal Teff company includes a printable 100% teff injera recipe with many troubleshooting tips.

There are also many Youtube videos for injera – some for the traditional version, some using shortcuts such as active dry yeast.

Generally speaking, to make authentic teff injera, you will need to do the following:

1. Create a teff sourdough starter by mixing teff and water and letting it ferment for 3 days.
2. Once you have your starter, combine it with more teff flour which you will ferment for another 3 days.
3. Several hours prior to making the injera, you will want to take a portion of the batter and heat it up with hot water to make a gel, called the absit.
4. After the absit cools, you will want to combine it with the batter and allow to rest for a few more hours until bubbles form.
5. You can then pour injera batter over a heated non stick pan to make the flatbread.

Resources to Learn More About Teff

One of the pleasures of learning about different grains is that you get to travel around the world virtually.

Books

An approachable and highly rated gluten-free vegan book focused on teff and Ethiopian food is Teff Love: Adventures in Vegan Ethiopian Cooking by Kittee Bearns.

Ancient Grains by Kim Lutz provides several vegan whole grain teff recipes.

Two other cookbooks which contain recipes using teff flour are:

Flying Apron’s Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking by Jennifer Katzinger

The Homemade Flour Cookbook by Erin Alderson

Online Resources

The Maskal Teff company, based in Boise, Idaho, has an extensive list of teff based recipes.

The Happy Tummy Co, founded by Karen O’Donoghue, a woman who overcame her IBS symptoms by changing her diet, includes many fermented teff recipes, several of which are vegan.

Where to Buy Teff

You may be able to find teff in smaller quantities at your local health store or even grocery store.

For example, I was able to find Bob’s Red Mill whole grain brown teff at my local health food store.

You can also find teff on Amazon, both as a whole grain and a flour.

I have personally purchased Maskal Ivory Teff through Amazon.

For bulk quantities, the most cost effective source of brown teff grain and flour is Azure Standard, particularly if you pick up from one of their drop off locations.

All the teff grains I purchased so far have been clean and delicious.

Conclusion

As usual, it has been a pleasure to research the culinary uses of teff and share this information with you.

Teff is definitely among my favorites in terms of flavor and nutritional value.

Hopefully, this overview of teff will make you appreciate it more and give you a good starting point to cook and bake with it.

Wishing you a grainlicious experience!

Disclaimer:  I am not a medical professional or a nutritionist.  This post is provided for general educational purposes. For a full disclaimer, please see here. 

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