An introduction to tigernuts
Despite its name, the tigernut is a tuber, not a nut! You may know them as ‘chufas’, the name used by Spanish-speaking cultures who often use tignerut in drinks like horchata.
Tigernuts are extremely nutritous, providing iron, magnesium and protein, calcium, vitamins C and E and healthy fats.
We use tigernut as part of the base for our granolas as it has a mild, nutty flavour, and its prebiotic qualities make our granola a great gut-nourishing snack. Furthermore, it’s a slow-release carboydrate, so it’ll provide a steady stream of energy over the hours after you eat it.
The heart of a tiger
Tigernuts may also have benefits for your heart health. They contain potassium, which helps to open up your blood vessels. This makes tigernuts a good choice if you are keen to reduce your blood pressure, or are watching your cholesterol levels.
If that weren’t enough, tigernuts also contain essential amino acids. Although we can synthesise some amino acids ourselves, we have to source others (known as essential amino acids) from our diet. Tigernuts provide us with these so that we have all the buidling blocks we need to create the proteins essential for normal body function.