What Is Mesquite Flour? (What Is It Made Of, What It Is For, Substitutes + More) 

Flour is an old ingredient that has been used around the world for thousands of years, and since flour’s invention, people have created more variations of flour that are still used to this day.

One such flour is mesquite flour, but you may be wondering what mesquite flour is. I did the research, and here is what I discovered!

What Is Mesquite Flour?

Mesquite flour is a type of flour made from dried seed pods of the mesquite tree. Typically, mesquite flour features a unique taste to regular flour since mesquite flour tastes sweet and nutty with some people comparing mesquite flour to molasses. Typically, mesquite flour can be used for baking but some people use mesquite flour to sweeten drinks.

Do you want to learn about what mesquite is, how mesquite flour is made, and what you can substitute for mesquite flour? Keep reading!

What Is Mesquite?

Mesquite is a name commonly used to refer to some types of spiny leguminous shrubs or trees, and mesquite’s dried seed pods were a staple ingredient for Native Americans.

Where Does Mesquite Flour Come From?

Mesquite flour comes from the mesquite tree’s dried seed pods, which are trees commonly found in the southwestern USA, South America, Mexico, Eastern Asia, and Northern Africa.

What Type Of Flour Is Mesquite Flour?

Generally, mesquite flour is considered red flour, but mesquite flour usually has a pale red color.

What Is Mesquite Flour Used For?

Normally, mesquite flour is an excellent ingredient to add to barbecue food since mesquite flour has some smoky flavors.

Despite mesquite flour’s smokiness, mesquite flour can be used in most recipes that call for flour, such as cakes, bread, and cookies.

Moreover, mesquite flour may be ideal to use in sweet pastry recipes since mesquite flour has a natural sweetness, which could potentially help you lower how much sugar you add to your recipe.

Surprisingly, mesquite flour does not need to be cooked or baked like other flours, so you may use mesquite flour in raw recipes.

While mesquite flour is not as sweet as sugar, you may use mesquite flour in your teas and coffee if you want to mildly sweeten your drink.

What Does Mesquite Flour Taste Like?

Typically, mesquite flour tastes naturally sweet with notes of nuttiness, and many people akin mesquite flour’s flavor to brown sugar.

Due to mesquite flour’s aroma, you may also taste a bit of hazelnut, cocoa, and molasses. Moreover, some people state that there is a bit of smokiness in mesquite flour.

How Long Does Mesquite Flour Last?

How long mesquite flour lasts often depends on the storage conditions, but you can expect mesquite flour to last for up to six months when stored properly.

How Do I Store Mesquite Flour?

How Do I Store Mesquite Flour?

Ideally, the best way to store mesquite flour is to remove the mesquite flour from its original packaging and to a food-grade container that has a tight-fitting lid.

Keeping your mesquite flour in a container with a tight lid will keep smells, bacteria, moisture, pests, and other food flavors from contaminating your mesquite flour.

Once your mesquite flour is in a tightly-sealed container, you can keep the container of mesquite flour in a cool, dry place like a cupboard.

Is Mesquite Flour The Same As Mesquite Powder?

Generally, mesquite flour is the same as mesquite powder as they are merely alternative names for each other, but they are both made from the dried seed pods of mesquite trees.

Does Mesquite Flour Have Carbs?

Mesquite flour does have carbs, and mesquite flour is estimated to have nine grams of carbs for every three tablespoons of mesquite flour.

Is Mesquite Flour Keto-Friendly?

Generally, mesquite flour is not considered keto-friendly because three tablespoons of mesquite flour already contain nine grams of carbs.

Normally, most keto diets only allow up to twenty grams of carbs per day for most people, so a small amount of mesquite flour could easily go over the allowed amount of carbs per day.

How Many Calories Are In Mesquite Flour?

Typically, mesquite flour has around 50 calories per three tablespoons of mesquite flour.

Does Mesquite Flour Have Sugar?

Mesquite flour does contain sugar, but most of mesquite flour’s sugar content comes from mesquite being a carb.

Generally, mesquite flour is considered a low-sugar alternative to flour, but diabetics should be aware that they usually cannot eat too much mesquite flour.

How Do I Make Mesquite Flour?

If you have dried mesquite pods, be sure to remove any part of the pods that insects have infiltrated.

Ideally, your mesquite pods need to be fully dehydrated, so slightly green pods will not be good for mesquite flour.

Some people opt to put slightly green pods into a solar oven for several hours to dry the mesquite pods further until the mesquite pods are lightly tanned and dry.

Break your pods into small pieces that are around 1-2 inches big then place the mesquite pod pieces in a clean blender.

Begin slowly pulsing the pods in the blender, slowly increasing the speed until the mesquite pods have ground into a fine powder.

Typically, the flour will be a bit chunky from the seeds and pods, so you need to sift the mesquite flour before using the mesquite flour.

What Can I Use Instead Of Mesquite Flour?

Normally, you can use any type of flour instead of mesquite flour if you merely need a flour-like ingredient in your recipes, such as recipes for bread, cookies, and more.

However, you need to know that you may not get the same flavor that mesquite has to offer since mesquite has a complex flavor profile whereas regular flours like all-purpose flour taste plain.

Check out our other articles to learn what millet flour is, what maize flour is, and what Manitoba flour is.

Conclusion

Mesquite flour is a unique type of flour made from mesquite pods, and mesquite flour features a naturally sweet, nutty, and smoky taste that is somewhat similar to brown sugar or molasses.

While mesquite flour can be a great flour for diabetics that want to use less sugar in their foods, diabetics should still be aware that mesquite flour has some sugar.

Moreover, you can make mesquite flour at home by taking completely dried mesquite pods and grinding the pods in a blender to create a fine powder.

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