Whoever has the most saliva, swallows the most pinole

Posted: December 15th, 2009 | Author: admin | Filed under: food | Tags: breakfast, recipe | 1 Comment »

After reading Born to Run I’ve been a bit obsessed with some of the things discussed in the book. One of those things being pinole – a traditional Mexican food that is often used when travelling, or by the Tarahumara when running long distances for energy (in dry form). It’s hard to get an official recipe on how to make it, since it’s such a simple food, but this is my take on a traditional ‘pinole’ and I’ve been enjoying it many ways for the past few weeks.

Basic Pinole Recipe

1/4 cup course grind cornmeal

1 tbsp sweetener (I’ve used agave, maple syrup & brown rice syrup)

cinnamon to taste (I use a lot)

~ 3/4 cup water

1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)

Combine the first three ingredients in a bowl and mix. Add the water, stir, and microwave for 1-2 minutes (you could also cook it on the stove for 15 min or so). Once cooked, stir to smooth out the mixture and add the chia seeds if using. Let sit for a couple minutes to let the chia seeds absorb the excess water, adding more water or other liquid to reach the consistency you like. If you don’t want to use chia seeds you can either microwave the cornmeal mixture for longer to thicken it up or just use less water. I like mine to be a bit thinner than I would oat bran with more of a ‘cream of wheat’ consistency.

I usually add toppings and eat this about an hour before exercising. It digests really well and is very filling for less of a caloric load on the body. I love the slightly gritty texture from the cornmeal and the chia seeds give it a really cool consistency. It’s also a flavour that lends itself well to many different additions.

Here’s another bowl, topped with raisins and pom arils. This was a pre-run snack.

And another with sliced banana. I like to keep my pinole pretty simple so far, mostly because I usually just use it as a snack.

And today’s breakfast. I played around with this one a little and added pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon, maple syrup and 1/4 cup pumpkin puree to the cornmeal. I also added some hemp protein powder to give it a little more protein heft. Topped with raisins and apple butter. This might be my favourite combo yet.

Some people seem to think that ‘grits’ or ‘pinole’ is less healthy than oatmeal or oat bran but I find the nutritionals to be pretty comparable if you’re buying a good brand. I buy Bob’s Red Mill brand coarse cornmeal and when compared to the same brand of oat bran or rolled oats the only real difference is that the cornmeal has less protein. It actually contains more fiber per gram than most of the oat products. So, not so bad at all.

Of course, it’s never going to replace a good bowl of oatmeal, but so far I’m quite the fan.

BTW – the post title comes from the Wikipedia article on pinole. In case you were wondering

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