Organic Japanese Kuzu - Gluten Free Starch Thickener

OrganicKosherVeganWheat FreeGluten FreeNut Free

Clearspring Organic Kuzu is a superior quality starch with a smooth texture and neutral flavour that is naturally extracted from the roots of one of Japan's most vigorous mountain plants. Its quality is recognised by Free From Awards 2012 commended this year!

Ingredients: Organically wild harvested kuzu root (Pueraria lobata)

Product weight - 125g

How to use

Ideal thickener for soups and stews, sweet and savoury sauces, glazes and pie fillings, it is easy to use:

• Crush the chunks
• Dissolve in a small amount of cold water
• Add the mix to to your cooking liquid
• Heat, stirring continuously until thick and translucent.

A half to one tablespoon of kuzu will thicken one cup of liquid.

Kuzu production

Clearspring's kuzu producer has been making kuzu for five generations, and still carefully follows the traditional 120-day process of washing, settling, filtering and drying the pure organic kuzu root starch that it supplies to Clearspring. Located in southern Kyushu, where the volcanic soils produce exceptionally vigorous kuzu plants, they are one of the few remaining producers of pure kuzu starch in Japan.

Kuzu and health

Kuzu has been valued for centuries as a starch that is soothing and easy to digest. According to Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Traditional Medicine and Preventive Health Care in Portland, Oregon, kuzu contains a very high concentration of flavonoids, which are responsible for its strong medicinal effect on the digestive and circulatory systems (1). Flavonoids, which occur naturally in kuzu and other plants, are known to be antioxidants. However, they also have the ability to inhibit the contraction of smooth muscle tissue, thereby increasing blood flow and relieving cramping in the intestines.

(1) Dharmananda S, Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases with Chinese Herbs, March 2002, www.itmonline.org