Wheat Berry Salad with Currants - Update

Ages ago, I said I would post pictures of the Wheat Berry Salad once I prepared it.  Well, a long time later, here goes!

Aren't currants crazy?  They look like fish eggs; I had never cooked with them before.

The finished product.  You can find the recipe for this dish here.  It was a great summer dish, and it would also be great in the fall with some dried cranberries and apples!

Wheat Berry Salad with Currants

I have had this post in my "drafts" folder for a week or so now, and I apologize.  After we received currants last week and wheat berries a couple weeks before, I remembered a recipe I previously posted for a Wheat Berry Salad a friend gave to me.  I'm waiting for a chance to go buy peaches and sunflower seeds--and as soon as I do I will cook up this salad, take photos, and add the pictures to this post.  In the meantime, please enjoy this recipe if you find yourself with currants and wheat berries and are looking for a way to use them.  Sounds so good!

Wheat Berry Salad

(Recipe compliments of one of my best friends.  This would be a great addition to a green lettuce salad.)

Ingredients
1.5 c. wheat berries

Seasalt

4-5 scallions, chopped

1 c. chopped peaches (substitute apples in the Fall/Winter)

1/2 c. currants

1/4 c. toasted sunflower seeds

Juice of 1 lime

3 tbs. sesame oil

Preparation

Cook wheat berries, then in large bowl, combine cooked berries with scallions, apples, currants, and toasted sunflower seeds.  Toss with lime juice, toasted sesame oil, and pinch of salt.  Serve room temperature or chilled.

Cooking Wheat Berries

(These directions are for 3/4 c. wheat berries.)

Place wheat berries in heavy medium saucepan.  Add enough cold water to saucepan to cover wheat berries by 3 inches.  Let stand overnight.  Drain.

Bring 4 c. water, wheat berries and 3/4 tsp. salt to boil in same saucepan.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until wheat berries are tender but still slightly firm to bite, about 1 hour.  Drain.

Wheat Berry Bread

Instead of making our go-to whole wheat bread in our bread machine this week I made bread using wheat berries and the barley flour from our Farm Share.  I also added a scoop of granola I made a while ago halfway through the kneading cycle to give it some extra texture.

I just had some toasted and drizzled with honey for breakfast.  Delicious!

I feel sort of like I'm cheating by using a bread maker; I by no means employ the patience or skill required when making a homemade loaf of bread.  If you want to try making your own bread, this recipe looked like a good one to follow.

And, for future reference, when using barley flour you can use it in any recipe that calls for whole wheat flour.  Simply half the amount of whole wheat called for and replace with the barley flour, using the whole wheat flour for the other half.

Sweet Beet Muffins

This is not story of a wolf in sheep's clothing.  You may know from one of my previous posts that I have tried several different recipes for beets in an attempt to convince myself I could like them, however I continuously found that I simply did not.  My dilemma this week was looking at the three beets from previous Farm Share boxes staring at me in the refrigerator and wanting to cook them, but dreading the  process of doing so.  

One morning, on my walk to the T, I was reminded of my favorite coffee shop in Nashville (Fido in Hillsboro Village, love!) and the creative, delicious muffins they had.  It was then I was struck with an "ah-ha!" moment--beet muffins!  Fido had a beet muffin at one time that their baker was experimenting with--I tried it and liked it, a big moment for me.  Hence how I became inspired to turn these beets that were staring me down into a delicious baked good.

These turned out really well, and I used all the beets we had left!  In addition to the beets from our Farm Share, I used some of the barley flour we received in our Farm Share this week.

Enjoy!

Sweet Beet Muffins
(Recipe adapted from a post on this blog)

Ingredients
1 c. beets
1 c. whole wheat flour (I used 1/2 c. whole wheat flour and 1/2 c. barley flour)
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 c. + 2 tbs. brown sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. soy milk
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350.  Roast beets in oven (wrap washed beets in foil and place on middle rack, 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, or until soft).  Once beets are cooled, peel and shred (you can use a food processor to chop or cheese grater to grate beets).  Mix all dry and wet ingredients separately, then combine, folding beet mixture into the dry ingredients.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from center of muffin.

After beets were roasted and peeled, I used my mini food processor to chop the beets.

The beets before adding the wet ingredients.  They really are gorgeous vegetables.

Vibrant purple batter!

The finished product.

Baking Success!! Vegan Carrot Spice Muffins with Wheat Berries

If you have read through some earlier posts from this blog you might know that I am NOT a baker.  I really try, but more often than not my attempts are failures.

So, this is why I am so excited to share this recipe!!  First, if I can do it, anyone can bake these muffins and they will turn out splendidly.  Second, they used both wheat berries and carrots from our Farm Share.  Third, It is a vegan recipe and if a vegan baked good turns out well you know it's a keeper!  This is my adapted version, enjoy!!

Vegan Carrot Spice Muffins with Wheat Berries

Ingredients
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. powder ginger
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. Turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
1/2 banana, puréed
1 c. boiled wheat berries (you don't have to add this, but it works if you want to!)
1 c. soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. shredded carrot
1/4 c. golden raisins
Sugar in the Raw sprinkled on top before baking

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl mix the flour, wheat berries, salt, baking powder and spices.  In a medium bowl mix the soy milk, vegetable oil, banana, sugar, vanilla, carrot and raisins.  Add to the dry mixture and stir until just mixed.  Don't over-mix.  Pour evenly into muffin tins (greased or lined with baking cups) and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  Check to make sure they are done with a toothpick.  Cool and serve.

"Homemade" Bread

(FYI: This post, like the one before, is not about our Farm Share; again I diverge, but only to share the love we feel for fresh-baked bread.)

My husband and I thoroughly enjoy the convection oven bread maker we received as a wedding gift.  I can't say this bread is homemade because we are in no way kneading the dough or giving the bread the love I feel most bakers do when making a beautiful loaf of bread.  However, we do make a loaf about once a week with all-natural ingredients and no additives.

I wasn't sure how much we would use it, but since we got it we have yet to buy a loaf of bread at the grocery store.  We use it consistently to make whole wheat bread (for sandwiches and such), but you can do so much more with it.  Suffice it to say, there is more bread making of all different kinds in our future.

After the initial investment of buying the bread maker, it is so cheap and easy to make bread.  We buy bags of flour at a time and with a few extra ingredients we get fresh bread that contains no preservatives every week at a minimal cost (buying loaves like this from a bakery or specialty grocery store would run at least $4/loaf.  Making it yourself is pennies!)

You can find a bread maker at Bed Bath & Beyond or any specialty cooking store.  The one we have is from Cuisinart.

Here is an example of what you would need to make one loaf of honey whole wheat bread.  Keep in mid that once you buy these ingredients, the supplies make A LOT of loaves of bread:

~ 1 c. warm water
3 tbs. honey
1/3 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. bread flour
2 tbs. butter
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

Wonderful Wheat Berries

Well, we have been collecting wheat berries and barley for a while now from our Farm Share.  They require a little work: soaking overnight in water and then boiling for about an hour when ready to prepare, so every time I thought to use them in a meal was too short notice.

I took the time this past weekend to do the soaking and boiling (which really is not labor intensive at all, you just have to be home to check on the berries as they boil) and we ate our first batch of wheat berries with breakfast this morning.  We both really enjoyed the addition it made to our oatmeal, and now I'm really excited to add our batch of cooked wheat berries to different dishes.  You can do so many different things with them; I included a couple recipes below to illustrate their versatility.  

Our batch of wheat berries before soaking overnight.  I prepared a pretty large amount so we would have enough to eat in different meals throughout the week (and to make a dent in our supply).

The boiling begins...

I love to throw apples into our oatmeal.  These are our Farm Share apples from this week.

And the finished product: oatmeal with wheat berries (1:1 ratio) and apples (and cinnamon and brown sugar, of course!)

Cooking Wheat Berries

(These directions are for 3/4 c. wheat berries.)

Place wheat berries in heavy medium saucepan.  Add enough cold water to saucepan to cover wheat berries by 3 inches.  Let stand overnight.  Drain.

Bring 4 c. water, wheat berries and 3/4 tsp. salt to boil in same saucepan.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until wheat berries are tender but still slightly firm to bite, about 1 hour.  Drain.

Wheat Berry Salad

(Recipe compliments of one of my best friends.  This would be a great addition to a green lettuce salad.)

1.5 c. wheat berries

Seasalt

4-5 scallions, chopped

1 c. chopped peaches (substitute apples in the Fall/Winter)

1/2 c. currants

1/4 c. toasted sunflower seeds

Juice of 1 lime

3 tbs. sesame oil

Cook wheat berries, then in large bowl, combine cooked berries with scallions, apples, currants, and toasted sunflower seeds.  Toss with lime juice, toasted sesame oil, and pinch of salt.  Serve room temperature or chilled.

Rice and Wheat Berry Pilaf with Baby Spinach

(Recipe from Bon Appétit, via Epicurious.com)

Ingredients

3/4 c. wheat berries

5 3/4 c. water

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tbs olive oil

3/4 c. basmati rice

3 garlic cloves, minced

16-oz baby spinach leaves 

Preparation

Cook wheat berries per directions above.

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat.  Add rice and garlic; stir 1 minute.  Stir in remaining 1 3/4 c. water and 3/4 tsp salt; bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until liquid is almost absorbed and rice is tender, about 15 minutes.  Add spinach and cooked wheat berries; stir until spinach wilts and wheat berries are heated through, about 3 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve hot.