I remember when I was in college, Yoplait had "breakfast yoghurt" that had fruit, nuts, and wheat berries mixed in, and I loved the stuff, so I thought I would try to make a home version.
I bought some red winter wheat berries at the health food store yesterday, soaked them overnight (and then some, it was evening, before I was able to get to them). I simmered them on the stove for about an hour (online recipes listed cooking times between 45 minutes to 3 hours, so I wasn't sure how long they were going to take to get tender).
Anyway, I haven't used them in a recipe or stirred them into yoghurt, but I had about a 1/4 cup with a bit of light butter, and WOW, they taste so good. They remind me of overcooked "shoepeg" corn. Chewy, and a little sweet. I can see using these in alot of recipes that I would ordinarily use rice or even meat (I was thinking of using them as a taco meat extender instead of or in addition to tvp. I think I could use even less meat than I do with tvp - right now about 50/50).
I think I'll try spelt or rye berries and some barley next time.
For lunch today, I used them in a texmex skillet casserole. It even passed the junk-food junkie hubby test. I browned 1/4 lbs groundbeef with onion, greenpepper, celery, an ear of fresh sweet corn kernels, and about 3/4 cup of wheat berries with garlic powder and taco seasoning and about 1/2 cup of salsa. It turned out sort of hamburger helper like.
It was really good, and filling without being heavy. I still have alot of the cooked wheatberries left, so I think I'll work them into some more recipes. I found a recipe online for a chicken wheatberry waldorf salad.
I'm itching to duplicate a delicious wheatberry salad that I tried ... it was wheatberries, toasted pecans, roasted red peppers, golden raisins and a light vinagrette dressing. The perefect combination of chewy, crunchy, and sweet.
If I come up with something palatable, I'll post the recipe.
wheat berries, yummy
