Picture this: A glorious, pink slice of bread that would cheer up any table. At first bite, sweetness is what you experience, then a bit of sourness with a hint of umami. A touch of spice follows, which leaves an intense aftertaste. This is freshly-baked beetroot bread: not stuffed or topped with beetroot, but simply flavoured with it. Chefs and bakers today are pairing sublime flavours with modern techniques to create avant-garde flavoured savoury breads, as people turn health-conscious and seek variety.
An increasing number of consumers are shying away from bread in general, because it is loaded with carbs or has too much gluten. Reinventing this revered staple is a challenge bakers and chefs are taking head on.
Naturally delicious
Low-calorie, nutrient-dense vegetables make surprisingly great flour substitutes, or can be used in combination with flour too. There are no artificial colours or flavours involved, as the vegetables impart the hue to the bread.
Executive Chef Sunit Sharma, Cidade de Goa, says, “Breads made with vegetables is an idea that came from vegetable-flavoured, coloured pasta. This is done not only for the look and appealing colours, but also to add vitamins, minerals and fibre. It is an option being explored and pushed by chefs on how to increase vegetable intake in the younger generation, which is consuming a high-carbohydrate and protein diet.”
Chef Vineet Manocha, Vice President – Culinary, Lite Bite Foods, adds, “The chef has to adjust the recipe according to the vegetables chosen. Vegetables are used in various forms like fresh purees, raw chopped, steamed-chopped and even in dehydrated form. Dehydrated vegetable flakes, as well as powders, provide convenience in large-scale commercial operations. Commonly-used vegetables are beetroot, spinach, onions, red pumpkin, zucchini, tomato. These vegetables not only impart flavour, but also a pleasant colour, which provides excellent eye-appeal.” However, he cautions, “Breads imbibe the flavour of the vegetable and other ingredients. It is thus very important for the chef to understand good flavour combinations.”
Vegetables with an imposing personality don’t work, according to chefs. Very often, they are used in combination with other ingredients — spices, nuts, herbs to up the flavour and texture. Chefs unanimously agree that ingredients like kefir, caraway and sunflower seeds, nuts added to the flour, in a beetroot bread, give a dense and grainy texture. Similarly, mashed carrots have texture. Add the salty tang of feta cheese and lots of chopped fresh mint, and the carrots’ sweetness becomes a playful partner in the dough.
Between the buns
Whether you’re going gluten-free, paleo, or just watching your carbs, you don’t have to give up on burgers. At least not any more, when healthy vegetable buns and sliders are on offer.
homemade onion bread on yellow napkin with old knife
Chef Manikandan Vijaykumar, Founder Director, Chefs M&N Pvt Ltd, Chennai, and his partner Chef Navin Prasad, have taken flavoured breads to another level with innovative burger buns. They have been offering new flavour combinations to their patrons at places like Destination 70, Chennai, for a while now.
“Appearance matters to guests today and so one has to constantly think of ways to attract a diner’s interest. Coloured buns in burgers are appetising to look at, and when made with vegetable flavours are delicious too,” Chef Mani explains.
Some chefs also use sweet potato, as it adds dimension in addition to flavour. It is soft, yet firm enough to hold the burger patty.
At Café Azul, Cidade de Goa, Chef Sharma and his team recently curated a beer and burger festival, where red, orange, green and yellow burgers were on offer. He elaborates, “While the green was a mint coriander bun, the red was beetroot, and also one with tomatoes, the yellow was a turmeric bun with spices. The guests really appreciated the unique idea of flavoured, coloured buns. So the bread, spread and filling were different in each burger, and thus extremely inventive.”
Barcelos, Hyderabad is known for its handcrafted gourmet burgers. Their red burger bun is a hot favourite. The company undertook extensive research and development before settling on the final ingredients for the colour. Between Buns in Delhi, too, has a beet burger where the brioche is pink in colour. The patty also contains beetroot and green peas, among other healthy ingredients. Their fish schnitzel burger — a red beetroot bun topped with guacamole — is sought after by health aficionados.
Upward trend
This trend is in its nascent stages in India, but several chefs and bakeries are trying to popularise it and create an awareness. However, such breads are naturally more expensive and their prohibitive costs are an obstacle to their popularity.
Chef Manocha elaborates, “We have seen a growth in demand of these innovative breads and burger buns. Customers today are getting experimental, and if a new product is available, they want to try it. We even get a lot of repeat customers for these products, owing to their high quality.”
Chefs admit that plenty of inventiveness is needed to pull this off. Theobroma Mumbai has been offering Parsi chutney bread and spinach sticks for a while now, and finds several takers for this. The buzzword, clearly, is innovation.
Slice it, toast it, or place a patty between the buns, but you cannot resist these soft, flavoured gems, the mark of a chef’s labour of love.
