About Agave Inulin

Agave is getting quite a bit hype lately and as I research more and more about it, I have discovered another product from this natural sweetener. I have shared in the past that agave seems like a great sugar-free product similar to honey or maple syrup, but many people are comparing it to high fructose corn syrup! Not great when we are trying to stay “naturally sweet”! After hearing about this, we have limited our use of agave. However, agave inulin is something different! When I heard about this product from one of our readers, I welcomed the good news and couldn’t wait to look into it.

You may already know that agave is a liquid sweetener similar to honey, yet has an even sweeter, mild flavor. Agave inulin is a powder. I quickly discovered that this powered comes in 3 different varieties – plain, vanilla and cocoa but it’s not sweet like normal agave and doesn’t contain the same properties as other natural sweeteners.  I can’t substitute sugar for it but it has some cool benefits on it’s own. This could also be a great alternative to use to keep a dessert “light” or white or to help balance out the liquid/dry ratio in a recipe.

Agave inulin is mainly used as a probiotic additive to recipes. Agave inulin has been termed as a “super fiber”, providing a healthy dose of fiber and probiotics. This aids in promoting good intestinal health. It also has some other awesome health benefit s- it’s easy on the bloodstream and helps aid in calcium and magnesium absorption. The fine powder dissolves well in beverages and smoothies and works well for dairy treats and baked desserts (I’m excited to see how it does in frostings and sauces!). These are really great benefits in compared to the agave liquid and because this powder adds some extra nutrition to a recipe, I’ll be using like a supplementary powder. And because it’s a different part of the agave plant, it won’t spike blood sugar levels like normal agave. I’m still coming up with ways to use this healthy powder, but I’m thinking it could help decrease the natural sweeteners in recipes, add more nutrition to or just add a bit of flavor if using the vanilla or cocoa flavors. I’m excited to see where this leads me!