I love wheat berries. I first tried them at the salad bar at Whole Foods Market and I was hooked. They are slightly chewy, and “pop” when you bite into them. I love it. Plus you feel really good after eating it, probably because it’s loaded with vitamins, fiber, and other very good stuff.
What’s a wheat berry?
A wheat berry is an intact wheat kernel. It’s what gets ground up to make wheat flour. I could go into a long dissertation about the benefits of keeping your grains whole as long as possible, but I’ll save that for another post. Suffice it to say, wheat berries are packed with nutrients and fiber since they are virtually unprocessed.
For now, let me show you how to make wheat berries!
Inspired by The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook
Ingredients:
1 cup soft white wheat berries
2 cups water
dash of salt
Toast the wheat berries in a skillet for ~4 minutes on medium high heat. Stir often, for the wheat berries will begin to brown and even start popping. You may want to get a lid just in case. I had one fly off the pan and onto the counter! This step is optional, but it does give a nice, roasted nutty flavor and the grains will smell fantastic while they are cooking in the rice cooker!
Soak the wheat berries for 1 hour in water.
Drain the water and then cook the rice + 2 cups of water in a rice cooker at the brown rice setting. I use my awesome Zojirushi fuzzy logic rice cooker
note: Rice cookers come with a “cup” that is actually only 3/4 of a regular cup. The recipe shown above is for regular cups, not rice cooker cups. You can also try using the rice cooker proportions (i.e. add 2 rice cooker cups of wheat berries and fill the water up to level “2” under the “brown rice” section of the rice cooker)
This is what cooked wheat berries look like. Some of them will split open.
Now the possibilities are endless! Some Asians find that, just by replacing their white rice with a whole grain like this, they can actually lose weight. This stuff is filling (from all the fiber), super nutritious, and delicious (nutty, toasted flavor). I usually feel really good after eating this. I feel balanced, not stuffed, not unsatisfied. I think it’s because my body is getting enough nutrients and fiber, and thus it doesn’t crave munchies or desserts as much after a meal. I’m just starting to get into whole grains thing, but so far I love it!
Of course, you don’t have to treat it like rice. You can make interesting salads (which is how I first enjoyed it at Whole Foods). Toss with a “dressing” of some sort, and mix in vegetables, cheese, meat – whatever you fancy.
For this “recipe,” I finely chopped 1 red bell pepper, 1 orange bell pepper, 1/3 red onion, and 2 mini-cucumbers. I then dressed the cooked wheatberries with a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce, and sugar to taste. You can add hot pepper flakes or ground black pepper if you like a bit of kick. Finally, mix everything together.
And that’s it! Of course, this is very flexible and you can add whatever you want. I bet a Greek version with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, olives, peppers, and feta cheese would be really good as well.
Enjoy!
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Are wheat berries only found in specialty/high class supermarkets? I love the salad – it looks fabulous.
Hi Pink Panda – wheat berries are relatively inexpensive. I got them at a local coop where they sell lots of bulk whole grains. I have not checked places like Whole Foods, but I would presume that they would have it. Worse case scenario, you can always get it on amazon! (I have a link to it from the recipe)
Colorful! Gorgeous! Nutritious! Bravo!
My jaws tend to get tired after eating them for awhile but I love the chewiness and pop as you bite into them!
I can find it in my little college town so everyone should be able to find it in their supermarkets, WF or Trader Joes
YUM! I love wheat berries! I’m actually making chili with them tonight…:)
It looks beautiful and nutritious!
I love the photo of the ingredients (with bell peppers and onion)! 🙂
My New Year’s resolution is to eat more grains. I purchased some wheat berries from Whole Foods over a week ago and this post is just the inspiration I need! It looks good!
What a colorful salad! I recently started cooking with wheat berries and I love them too.
Oh it sounds lovely and you photos are great!
Have a great day
Hugs the Swedish woman in Sinapore:)
Wow, you have me craving wheat berries. And believe me, I never thought that would happen! 😉
I am a fan of wheat berries too! This salad looks so beautiful- I love the colors. I’m pretty sure you can healthier by just looking at the photos 🙂
Beautiful. I like trying different whole grains. They have such great texture and at least you know if you’re going to fill up on something like that, it’s the good kind of filler versus something that’s just going to break down too quickly in one’s system.
I have been seeing a lot of posts about wheat berries lately but have never thought of trying them myself. Your post has just convinced me-that looks DELICIOUS!
Jen, this is awesome! I never thought to cook and eat my wheat berries! Will definitely be trying this!!
I love this recipe, simple fresh tasting, I also add organic brown basmati rice sometimes. We also mix it with Quinoa Salad for protein.
Thanks for the recipe! Looks like exactly what I’m looking for.
This looks great! I recently just bought some wheatberry and will definitely be trying this. Thank you 🙂
This looks great! I recently just bought some wheatberry and will definitely be trying this. Thank you 🙂
I’ve eaten wheatberry before but was looking for a different version. I tried the Greek version (you mentioned this at the very end) and it was absolutely delicious. Will definitely keep this version in my recipe box. Thanx for the new idea.
Thank you so much for sharing the secret of cooking wheat berries in the rice cooker! My grain mill died a few months ago, but we have no plans to replace it. The problem? I have pounds and pounds of wheat berries to use somehow.
I cooked a big batch thinking I would eat them here and there, but after a couple of wheat berry meals I needed a break, so they went bad.
Now that I know I can make them in my rice cooker – and not have to carefully watch a pot on the stove – I can make a reasonable-sized batch whenever I want. 🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you!