Our Daily (Hemp) Bread

I'm pretty cheap, but I typically spend about $4 to $5 for a decent loaf of bread. It's gotta be mostly whole wheat or sprouted grain, high fructose corn syrup-free, and of course, vegan. Sometimes I buy Ezekial sprouted grain loaves. Other times, I opt for Rudi's Organics brand. Even the Whole Foods brand is quite delicious. But no matter how good the bread, I'd never shell out $9 for a loaf in real life.

However, I had a coupon for a free French Meadows Bakery product. I picked out a loaf of their Hemp Bread, which typically runs about $9 with tax at my Whole Foods. They keep it in the freezer section at the Memphis store.

The Hemp Bread, one of French Meadow's line of "performance breads," is made with a mix of organic whole wheat flour, hempseed flour, flax, poppy seeds, oat fiber, pumpkin seeds, millet, wheat berries, and all kinds of other healthy stuff. It contains 13 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber per slice!

I first tried the bread for breakfast Avocado Toast:

This slice is schmeared with avocado and seasoned liberally with sea salt, black pepper, and hot sauce. The hempseed flour lends the bread a sort of licorice-y taste, and though I hate licorice, I didn't mind the mild hint of it in my bread. It was a nice complement to the avocado. I especially loved the liberal sprinkling of seeds on the crust.

Next, I tried using hemp bread to make a Mighty Maple PB & Ricemallow Cream Sandwich:

Verdict: Not the best. Fluffer Nutter sandwiches are my absolute fave, but the hemp taste is a bit more savory. It's not the right vessel for a sweet treat like PB or Ricemallow Cream.

Finally, I spread some hemp bread with a little Mock Chicken Salad:

This was perfect! I picked up a tub of the mock chicken salad from my buddy Bastet, who sells her vegan foods at the Cooper-Young Farmer's Market on Saturdays. The TVP-based salad contained little bits of celery that went very well with the savory hemp bread.

Would I buy the hemp loaf again? Only if it was on sale. I'd certainly spend my usual $5 a loaf for it if it were priced that way, but $9 is way too much to pay for a loaf of bread. Just sayin'. It looks like you can actually order French Meadow breads for around $5.50 on their website, but then there's the whole shipping issue. They also sell a full line of healthy tortillas, bagels, and gluten-free desserts (but the desserts appear to be un-vegan).