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We use potato starch for many things: as a thickener in stews, gravies, soups, or sauces. Or for increasing crispiness and fluffiness in baked goods.
The uses and benefits are so numerous it might make you think you can’t do with it whenever you don’t have it on hand. But if you know your way around the kitchen pantry, there is ALWAYS an alternative.
Some of the best potato starch substitutes that we will be discussing here today include Sweet Rice Flour, Potato Flour, Cornstarch, Ground Matzo, Arrowroot, Wheat Flour, Coconut Flour, Almond Flour, Water Chestnut Flour, Quinoa Flour, and Tapioca Starch.
These alternatives serve the same purpose as potato starch — all way round. So, let’s quickly look into them below.
Best Potato Starch Substitutes
1. Coconut Flour
Coconut flour is a suitable replacement that is for perfect for vegans. It has this mild, sweet taste, making it different from potato starch.
This highly nutritious flour is obtained from dried, ground coconut flesh. Like other flours mentioned, it is commonly used for making cakes, bread, cookies, and muffins.
The color could be white or off-white. But the taste is always mild and sweet. If you are on a gluten-free diet, you will appreciate this product in your dishes.
Coconut flour is absorbent, which is good. You will only use a fraction of it by 15%. However, adding more than what is required will change the texture of your meal. It will make your dough too hard.
2. Potato Flour
Potato flour and potato starch can be used interchangeably. The only thing is that potato flour has a strong flavor, while the potato starch is PURELY flavorless.
And this is because potato flour was processed from whole peeled potatoes, cooked, dried, and grounded into a fine, beige-colored powder.
The nutrients and taste are still intact. However, it can serve well in times of urgent needs. It is perfect for light and crispy bread making, but not all baking goods.
You will also enjoy them as a thickener for smoother sauces, soups, and gravies, as well as in gluten-free cooking.
3. Sweet Rice Flour
You can use sweet rice flour to swap out potato starch from most recipes without affecting the texture or taste of the finished dish.
YES, don’t be deceived by the word ‘sweet rice.’ They aren’t sweet at all. They just have a neutral-tasting before and after cooking.
In addition, they are invaluable gluten-free flour because it has a high starch content, which makes them ideal for baking and thickening sauces, soups, stews, batters, pancakes, and more.
You will appreciate them when making moist, sweet bakes like elegantly textured cakes.
4. Cornstarch
Cornstarch is also flavorless and used as a thickening agent for marinades, gravies, soups, sauces, pies, casseroles, and more.
It is a soft and gluten-free product made out of the starchy portion of corn kernels. They are beneficial for giving that crunchy feel to your meal and absorbing moisture for the texture.
It is best to substitute one tablespoon for two cups of liquid in your recipe.
5. Arrowroot Powder
Another product you can replace potato scratch with is the Arrowroot powder.
This product is an extract of a tropical plant’s rhizome. It has multiple uses, like potato starch. You can use it as a thickening agent for just about any recipe or baking goods, except dairy-based meals.
If used in cooking sauces, it is more translucent and glossy. It has this silky mouthfeel. For substituting, replace every one potato starch with a teaspoon of arrowroot.
6. Ground Matzo
Ground Matzo might have a sweeter taste, but it is another substitute that can provide crispness to your dish.
It has a lot of uses, but for our purpose, it is best left for side dishes and soups.
7. Wheat Flour
This powder is obtained from grinding wheat, and it makes an excellent replacement for potato starch.
Wheat flour is the world’s favorite flower. You can use it for cooking, baking, and frying, but primarily baking. Because wheat contains higher gluten content than any grain, it produces the most elastic dough.
That makes it the best bet for a sourdough loaf, yeast bread, and flatbread like pita — only it has a flavor profile.
Unlike the flavorless potato starch, wheat flour has a mild nutty taste, but that depends on the type of wheat flour you’re getting.
For a potato starch swap, use it twice the amount, especially when using it as a thickener. Lastly, this is very important since wheat flour is not gluten-free; fast cooking makes it clumpy.
8. Tapioca Starch
Tapioca starch is an extract from cassava roots. It is a starchy white flour that can serve as a thickener in many recipes; only it has a slightly sweet flavor.
You can use it for bread, noodles, puddings, and other food products. It also boasts a glossy sheen in your meals.
However, if you use this product, you will have to use more quantity. The reason being it is lighter than potato starch.
9. Water Chestnut Flour
Water chestnut flour is primarily used as a thickening agent like potato starch.
It is a preferable alternative whenever you’re running out. But like most potato starch substitutes, it has a sweet, earthy taste with traces of a smokey flavor.
This product infuses new flavors and textures into your baked goods compared to the flavorless starch.
You can add it to almost any recipe. Just ensure you use water to mix it up before use.
10. Almond flour
This option is incredibly nutritious and provides much potential health. Almond flour is one of the healthiest options you can find on this list. It is packed with nutrients and offers plenty of health benefits.
In addition, they are famous for gluten-free and Paleo diet cooking, be it cakes, cookies, B readings, even as a sauce thickener.
Almond flour tastes, well, like almond — only it milder.
11. Quinoa Flour
Like every other whole grain flour, quinoa flour is fantastic for baking goods.
Whether you plan on making gluten-free bread, pancakes, pizza base, muffins, and pie crusts, quinoa grants you all your culinary desires.
Aside from that, you can use it together with other flours — if you don’t like the bold grass-like flavor, with a trace of bitterness.
But you will appreciate its taste more for thickening stews, sauces, soups, and more.
12. Oat Flour
We started this list with a nutritious option, and we are ending it with another nourishing whole grain flour: the Oat Flour. Absurdly rich in nutrients, the oat flour might be the healthiest potato starch substitute.
Using this product in baked goods makes them taste like they took all day to make. I’m talking about the subtly sweet, toasty, and nutty flavor that immediately awakens your taste buds.
Not just that, it will thicken your favorite sauces, soups, gravy, and stews — especially in gravy. Oat flour will make any gravy even creamier and silkier due to the beta-glucan fiber.
Conclusion
So let’s wrap it up!
While some of these substitutes are luscious flavored and make heads turn, others might be flavorless. It is just a matter of personal preference.
But one thing is guaranteed:
Each of these potato starch substitutes is excellent for baking goods and a thickener for sauces, soups, and pie fillings. Some are even healthier than your first pick. So choose wisely.
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