my psychotic chicken little style rants and ramblings- while on the road to self reliance.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

cooking with wheat berries.

Cooked Wheat Berries

Enter wheat berries!
I hope you are all storing wheat. It is such a smart buy. Not only will it store FOREVER, and the Lord called it the staff of life. Do you want to be able to make bread, pancakes, cookies.... well hell, anything that needs flour- you need wheat. We of course grind the wheat berries to make flour, or we can sprout them. Or cook with them- I learned something really cool at a  preparedness fair this weekend, and one of the neatest booths I saw was a gentleman who had cooked with wheat berries.  He had a sloppy joe mix and a taco/burrito filling. The burrito filling was really good, and I plan on making it soon.
I have sprouted wheat berries and eaten just a hand full, put them in salads, or on a sandwich. The berries are sweet and really tasty. But I have never cooked with berries like the guy did, and I was impressed with how hearty the filling is. The berries could easily take the place of meat- and this is coming from a carnivore.
If there was a night you wanted to skip the meat or if you were in times of trouble and did not have meat- this would be perfect.
(I really liked the taste of the burrito filling, but you could make your favorite recipe and then just add the berries in place of meat.) I think I will make my sloppy joes and add the berries.

You will cook the berries 1st and then add them to the dish
Here are the recipes:

taco/ burrito filling:
one medium onion
three cups wheat berries ( i might do more)
one 14oz can green or red enchilada sauce ( i think he used green)
one 4oz can green chilies- optional
two cups water
two cups dried refried beans
saute onion clear. add wheat berries, enchilada sauce and water. when mixture begins to boil, add dries refried beans. cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

sloppy joe mix:
one medium onion
one grated carrot
three cups wheat berries
one bottle bbq sauce

saute onion and carrot till tender, add wheat berries and bbq sauce. cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

You will prepare the wheat berries in advance, and here are two methods on how to do it:
stove top method:
To prepare wheat berries, bring to boil 2 cups of water, add 1 cup wheat. Keep the pan covered and when it begins to boil turn the stove to simmer for 30 minutes. For quinoa the ratio is the same as wheat. For barley the ratio is 1 cup barley to 4 cups water.
Crock pot method:
Place 2 cups water and 1 cup wheat in crock pot. Cook on high for 1 hour. Ratio for quinoa is the same, and for barley the ratio is 1 cup to four cups water.

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