Mesquite isn’t just for BBQ

Well, I’d say the first attempt at making mesquite bean flour was a success.

I saw my first Honey Mesquite tree in December of 2020. I had just moved to Texas the month before and found myself touring around a ranch with a manly Texan I had met on the dating app, Bumble. He pointed out all sorts of plant life and named them all with authority. It was my first realization that I was truly in another land but now on a mission to learn some things about the landscape.

While touring, Eddie expressed his knowledge and inkling that you could do something with the beans, but figured it was a lot of effort if you had to shell them all, so he never really got down to the knitty-gritty. A year or so later, I’m now married to this Texan and we’re snapping pods off the trees. We gathered two giant baskets, full to the brim, in little under one hour. Ten pounds in total. We felt rich!

Nearly every reference I read on the subject recommended roasting the beans whole, even though you could also process them raw. I opted for roasting the bean pods whole in the oven as I figured it was the culinary thing to do. It smelled of coconut, vanilla, honey, and cinnamon. I mean just weird. Not what you’d expect. It smelled like cookies and I hadn’t done anything other than pick them and place them in a pan.

I should say now that you don’t have to shell these beans. You process them whole! What a relief! After roasting I snapped them into smaller piece and put them into the food processor. Holy carp was that loud!! The beans kind of rattle as it is, even the seeds inside the beans alone rattle, so all those little guys whirling around in that plastic container was deafening. I think I’d rather stone grind them than listen to that again. It was quick though. After that I sifted out the big chunks. The internal seeds are armored like a money truck, they didn’t grind up at all inside the food processor. I was going to feed the seeds to the chickens because of their high protein content, and then with urgency, Eddie reminded me that if I did that, we’d probably never get rid of mesquite plants if the flock pooped them out all around our house! Ha! And good thinking, because mesquite barbs are nothing to mess with.

The resulting flour from processing the beans was deeply taupe and sticky. We dipped our fingers in it to taste the powder and wow, holy flavor bomb! It’s difficult to describe but it definitely isn’t anything like mesquite barbecue. The flour has been used by native peoples to make breads and to flavor meats and other edible items. We also enjoyed it as a coffee-substitute, but personally I think it shines in a sweet & spiced bakery item.

While experiencing this new taste I remembered I had prickly pear cactus jelly I made last year and an idea was born… thumbprint cookies! Southwest Flat Rock Creek Ranch Cactus Cookies. I don’t know something like that. They are delicious. A little mesquite flour goes a long way, and the flavor is magical. Some folks baking with mesquite suggest using no more than 25% for the total flour batch, otherwise the flavor is rather strong.

As we work towards perfecting oven-baked ribs I’m eager to try mesquite flour as a rub, and pretty much anywhere else that it can be applied. I am enthralled with this plant and wonder why it hasn’t been incorporated into contemporary cooking. Although painfully abundant and a nuisance to many land-stewards, it is an amazing food item that benefits both man and animals, and it resides right in our backyards.

#mesquite #texasfood #foraging #nativefood #baking