Wheat Berries

I keep forgetting to mention that I finally picked up some wheat berries at Bulk Barn this weekend. All the blog chatter about these little things got me curious, that's for sure. As Amy mentioned, they are labelled as "hard wheat kernels".

From Wikipedia:
"The term wheatberry or wheat berry refers to the entire wheat kernel (except for the hull), comprising the bran, germ, and endosperm. Wheatberries have a tan to reddish brown color and are available as either a hard or soft processed grain. They are often added to salads or baked into bread to add a crunchy texture; as a whole grain, they also provide nutritional benefits since they are an excellent source of dietary fibre."

They are a bit of a pain to prepare. Not that it's difficult, just time consuming. I soaked my raw wheat berries for about 6 hours on Sunday evening, which cut the actual boiling time down to around 45 minutes...but I felt like I really had to watch them the last 10 minutes for fear of overcooking. I was probably too worried though. Since then I've just been keeping them in a plastic wrap covered bowl in the fridge. They expand quite a bit when cooked...I wound up with a couple of cups.

Monday I added a scoop to my oatmeal and they were just as yummy and chewy as expected. They added a nice texture and a sort of nutty flavor to the mix. Today I chose to mix a scoop into my cottage cheese and again I was pleased....nice extra texture and taste to go with the slightly mushy and creamy cottage cheese. Now I am going to surf the net for a wheat berry recipes...hopefully some kind of salad and maybe some muffins.

Overall wheat berries are an interesting addition to my food repetoire...although I will likely only use them once in a while since a batch takes some time to cook (I like to decide spur of the moment most of the time) and lasts for quite a while (I also tend to like variety).