Kitchen thickeners are used to thicken sauces, puddings, pie fillings, soups, stews and many other recipes. But which one is best for your recipe? Can I use any natural thickener in any type of recipe? Are there natural thickeners that are very versatile?

Different types of thickeners

First, let’s look at the characteristics of cooking thickeners. The most used thickenerss come from a starch base. Starch is made up of thousands of sugar molecules often found in grains such as wheat and corn or in tubers and roots such as potatoes and arrowroot.

The starches are They thicken through a process called gelatinization, which breaks the intermolecular bonds of starch molecules in the presence of water and heat (from 60ºC), allowing the hydrogen bonding sites (the hydrogen hydroxyl and oxygen) to attract more water. This irreversibly dissolves the starch granule.

The vegetable gums (guar gum and xanthan gum) are other options to thicken your recipes. Some seeds also serve to thicken, such as psylliumwhich we will talk to you about below.

7 natural and healthy thickeners

Here we include a selection of natural thickeners that can give you a lot of use in different types of recipes.