These tiny seeds have a distinctive brown and beige marbled colouring and smooth pebble-like surface. They can be added to bread recipes to increase its nutritional content and also to give the bread greater aesthetic qualities.
The chia seed was used as part of a staple diet in South America and has now been rediscovered and made its way into Europe. It is known as a "superfood" and a "runners food", due to its concentrated amounts of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acid, fibre, protein and minerals.
Chia seeds usually require soaking for 30 minutes before adding to a bread recipe. Add a maximum 5% chia seeds to your recipe.
| Typical Values | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 400 calories |
| Protein | 20g |
| Carbohydrates | 2g |
| _of which sugars | 0.1g |
| Fat | 31g |
| _of which saturates: | 3.1g |
| __Mono-unsaturated fats | 1.9g |
| __Poly-unsaturated fats | 25g |
| _of which n-3 fats (Omega 3) | 18.6g |
| __n-6 fats (Omega 6) | 4.8g |
| __n-9 fats (Omega 9) | 1.6g |
| Fibre | 37.9g |
| Sodium | 0g |