Ever Heard Of Nutritious Tiger Nuts?

Ever Heard Of Nutritious Tiger Nuts? FARM HOME Food A backyard weed might be worth a second look Yellow nutsedge Cyperus esculentus produces a spikey crown of thin leaves and yellow flowers and can quickly overtake a lawn But dig some up and you’ll find several marble-sized brown tubers at its roots These are tiger nuts and they can be used to make a traditional Spanish beverage They fall between tubers and nuts in terms of nutrition as they have a moderate amount of starch and protein and impressive levels of magnesium potassium and vitamins C and E The nuts are gaining a reputation as an excellent health food Despite their name tiger nuts are not nuts but rather a member of the sedge family They have been cultivated since at least the time of ancient Egypt as many mummies have been found buried with them Unlike other ancient grains like quinoa or millet tiger nuts never gained widespread popularity Yellow nutsedge is hard to grow densely so it’s challenging to cultivate enough for a profit Today the nuts remain a niche product across parts of Africa and Spain where they are the prized ingredient in a milky drink known as horchata de chufa It takes 6 to 7 months to grow tiger nuts The seeds germinate best when first soaked overnight in lukewarm water After an early spring planting the tubers will germinate in about 10 days You can dig the tubers up like potatoes once the plant has died back in late fall Tiger nuts can also be grown in pots filled with nutrient-rich soil and placed in warm sunny locations Keep the soil moist and mulched to prevent it from drying out They taste great fresh but are traditionally dried to preserve their shelf life They get sweeter as they age as the sugars become concentrated Their consistency resembles dried coconut with a flavor like roasted chestnuts You can eat peeled tiger nuts on their own mixed into oatmeal or as a yogurt topping Unpeeled nuts should be soaked overnight Aged tiger nuts are used in the Spanish drink called horchata Dried nuts are soaked for at least 12 hours and then ground into a paste that is squeezed in cheese bags and strained out leaving a pale white beverage Water sugar vanilla and a dash of lemon and cinnamon are all added Expect to get 5 or 6 liters of horchata from 1 kilo of nuts

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