Arrowroot starch

Arrowroot starch was originally extracted from the tropical arrowroot tuber from the rainforests of Brazil and has many uses. The South American Arawak people are even said to have used the starch flour to treat wounds caused by poisoned arrows. Today, the arrowroot species are native to the warm and humid tropics to subtropics of South and Central America, southern Mexico, the Caribbean islands and Central America to South America.

The genus Maranta was listed by Carl von Linné in the 16th century in honour of the Italian botanist, physician and writer Bartolomeo Maranta (1500-1571). This is how the arrowroot got its name, the Maranta family.

The snow-white, gluten-free Paleo flour, also known under the English name "arrowroot", is particularly popular in English and American cuisine due to its purity and high binding quality. Unlike tapioca starch, arrowroot starch has no flavour of its own.

Arrowroot flour is particularly good at binding casseroles, soups, sauces as well as puddings, jellies, jams, groats, couvertures and glazes that must not be allowed to boil because, unlike corn or potato starch, it thickens at lower temperatures.
To ensure that the arrowroot powder binds without lumps, it should first be mixed with a little cold water until smooth. Recommendation: Stir 2-3 tbsp. arrowroot flour into 2-3 tbsp. cold liquid. Then stir the mixture into the simmering liquid to be bound with a whisk. Simmer, stirring constantly, until the desired consistency is reached.

Corn or potato starch often clouds the dishes after setting. Arrowroot starch, on the other hand, binds sauces, soups and jellies very clearly and leaves no taste of its own. Moreover, arrowroot flour binds about twice as strongly as wheat flour. The fine starch is also excellent as breadcrumbs.

To give baked goods an airy structure, you can replace 10 percent of the flour with arrowroot flour. Important: Arrowroot starch should always be combined with other binding agents, such as oils and fats, so that the baked goods remain nice and moist.

In vegan cooking, arrowroot flour also serves as an ideal egg substitute. 1-2 teaspoons of vegan vegetable cream or margarine mixed with 1-2 teaspoons of arrowroot flour until smooth is equivalent to about one medium-sized egg.