I cannot remember what I bought these food items for.

January 13, 2017 11:22 AM

In a fit of Bulk Barn madness, I purchased the following items a few months ago (they've been living in sealed containers in my fridge) but have no idea why I did or what the hell I would use them for. Any ideas?

I have the following: oat bran, wheat bran, soy flour, black bean flour.

Maybe I bought them for some long ago abandoned recipe? Who knows? But you, MeFites who cook, do you have any suggestions for their use so they don't hang around forever? None of them are spoiled; I checked.

Caveat: recipes must be vegan or easily veganizable.

posted by Kitteh to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

Best answer: I'm guessing you wanted to do some gluten-free baking?

There are a lot of recipes for quick breads and waffles and things using some (but not all) of these ingredients. I've been looking to make some gluten-free desserts, and this vegan brownie recipe looks pretty good.
posted by ananci at 11:42 AM on January 13, 2017

Best answer: Bran muffins (with soy milk and a flax egg of course)?
posted by TORunner at 11:59 AM on January 13, 2017

Best answer: Hello! I am your husband. I bought the black bean flour with the idiotic idea that I could use it to make tortillas, so I could have black bean tortillas with black beans as filling, and just black bean black bean black bean. This was ill-advised and my first attempt was a disaster, so I promptly forgot all about it.

This does nothing to change the nature of your question, but I'm reading MetaFilter when I should be working and thought you might like to know that one is on me.
posted by Shepherd at 12:00 PM on January 13, 2017 [258 favorites]

Best answer: <3 Bulk Barn

The oat and wheat bran I would add to baked goods to add fibre & flavour (I am weird and love the taste of oat bran).

I have never heard of black bean flour but the bob's red mill site suggests it can be used for dip?
posted by quaking fajita at 12:10 PM on January 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Ah yes, we did purchase the black bean flour to attempt tortillas. And they did turn out awful.

/end of public marital derail :)
posted by Kitteh at 12:21 PM on January 13, 2017 [40 favorites]

Best answer: Thickening soups and making refried beans!
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 12:39 PM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: yes make a bunch of bran muffins so you guys will have happy butts and live longer
posted by poffin boffin at 12:41 PM on January 13, 2017 [6 favorites]

Oat flour probably not for celiac, unless that's a loophole I'm unaware of.
posted by crankyrogalsky at 12:54 PM on January 13, 2017

Best answer: But I love the marital derail! (At first I thought it was a standard AskMe advice convention: "I am your husband, I, too, did x, y, and z to disastrous effect. Don't go there!" How delightful to discover it was your actual husband.) Anyway, this claims to have the 10 best black-bean flour recipes. I'm only adding it to get away with adding to the derail. Good luck!
posted by Bella Donna at 1:03 PM on January 13, 2017 [12 favorites]

Best answer: Some people put bran in smoothies to make them more filling for a longer time/more fibrous so you could use some up that way
posted by rmless at 1:15 PM on January 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You can add small amounts of the bran in place of some of the flour for any baked good. So if the recipe calls for a cup of flour, you could use a quarter cup of bran and three-quarters of a cup of flour instead. It would work better for something you want to be heartier, like apple muffins or pancakes, rather than, say, cupcakes.
posted by FencingGal at 1:19 PM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Definitely something like apple muffins for the oat bran.

Source: in early 90s when research findings surfaced that appeared to show that oat bran reduced LDL cholesterol, my dad went apeshit with it at breakfast, putting it in his oatmeal, cereal, whatever, and we had this big Tupperware container of oat bran from the Bulk Barn on hand at all times (the same scenario has played out with various things over the years - green tea, etc., and he's still doing the oat bran thing). To appease this growing demand for things oat bran in the house, at the time of the Great Oatening, my mom started making oat-bran apple mufffins. They were pretty good, and consequently I am, like quakingfajita, fond of oat bran, presumably in my case owing to this early imprinting.

Anyway, all that's to say is that it works well in the way FencingGal describes.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:28 PM on January 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I like to eat oat bran as a hot breakfast cereal- just like oatmeal, but even faster to cook. Here's the instructions. I like to do it on the stove top and stir it a bunch so it doesn't get lumpy- it's a very smooth, soothing gruel-like food. You can mix in anything- dried fruits, nuts, your sweetener and milk of choice. You could even mix in a little wheat bran, for some fiber in your fiber!
posted by Secretariat at 4:10 PM on January 13, 2017 [5 favorites]

Best answer: I add the bran to my husband's oatmeal in the morning to increase the fiber.
posted by raisingsand at 5:52 PM on January 13, 2017