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Whole Grains

Move over potatoes and pasta. Make way for wild rice, couscous, bulgur wheat, brown rice, quinoa, and barley!




Barley


Barley is a mild-flavored kernel-shaped grain known for its success at adding thickness to stews and soups. Barley is also a great addition to casseroles with carrots, root veggies, and onions.

Pearled barley and hulled barley are the two most popular types. Pearled barley is milled barley. So it takes only 40 minutes to cook. Hulled barley--barley with its outer layer removed--is more nutritious than pearled but takes a full 90 minutes to cook.


Bulgur Wheat


If you want a grain that's a snap to prepare, bulgur wheat is your best bet. Bulgur wheat cooks by rehydration. Simply pour twice the amount of boiling water or broth over dry bulgur and let it stand for 45 minutes.

Bulgur wheat's greatest claim to fame is tabbouleh salad, a Middle Eastern wheat and vegetable salad that has become wildly popular in the U.S.

Bulgur wheat is also a terrific substitute for ground beef. When cooked in vegetarian chili, for example, its texture becomes very similar to ground beef--but offers more fiber and far less fat.


Couscous


Okay, we admit it: couscous is not actually a grain. It is a tiny pasta made from fine semolina wheat. It behaves like a very light grain, however. Like bulgur, couscous is a breeze to prepare. It rehydrates like bulgur (two cups of water or broth to 1 cup of couscous), except that couscous will absorb the liquid much quicker than bulgur. Couscous will be ready in a quick 5 minutes! Couscous makes a fluffy bed for chicken or fish kebabs.


Quinoa


Quinoa (keen-wa) is not a new grain. It's been growing in South American fields for centuries (the Incans loved quinoa so much they called it "the mother grain").

Commonly used in salads, soups, pilafs, and side dishes, quinoa has a wonderful nutty taste and aroma. Like couscous, it's a quick-cooking grain--done in 15 minutes in a saucepan filled with 2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa.


Wild Rice


Wild rice is not really rice at all: it is the seed of a grass grown in Minnesota and Canada.

Wild rice has an assertive flavor that's delicious in soups and great paired with split peas or combined with other grains. It is one of the longer-cooking grains, using three to four times the amount of water or broth versus grain. The rice must simmer for a full 45 minutes to 1 hour before serving. The results are worth it!

Wild rice is harvested by hand, however, so it can be expensive.

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Brown Rice


More nutritious than white rice, brown rice is one of the more familiar whole grains. Brown rice cooks in double the amount of water or broth and it needs to simmer for a full 45 minutes. Cook up a batch and store it in a container in the refrigerator for days when you don't have time to let it cook slowly.

Comments
klflorida 
Sep. 12, 2009 8:18 am
Great information, tyvm!
 
Darklady7 
Apr. 25, 2010 4:13 pm
Excellent for providing grain water ratio and time. Thank you.
 
Jul. 19, 2010 9:34 am
Decided to eliminate carbs from my diet. Found carbs bloat me and add weight. This is a more natural, healthy alternative.
 
Jan. 10, 2011 2:07 am
Great article! Me and my family have recently decided to change to a vegan diet, and this article included all the new grains that we've been eating. I've been looking for new recipes to use them in, and this was very informative and helpful! Thanks!
 
Jan. 11, 2011 10:13 am
After losing weight, we decided to make a life-style change for our whole family. These recipes are perfect in doing this! Thank You:)
 
ahpg9 
Jan. 12, 2011 10:07 am
Barley is a good substitute for white rice or noodles in soup and is lower on the glicimic (sp)list.
 
Jackie 
Jan. 13, 2011 4:25 am
So glad you posted this info. Whole grains are essential to the Daniel Fast and right now this is the info I needed!!!!!!!! Thanks
 
jrisco 
Jan. 13, 2011 10:37 pm
thanks for all the wonderful grain info! Another grain I've just started cooking with is Farro. It is delicious, I hope to see more recipes using this grain in the future.
 
Jan. 14, 2011 5:13 am
Just a side note-- Couscous is only whole-grain if you specifically purchase "Whole-Wheat Couscous" which is hard to find at most large chains. (Common in "upscale" grocery stores, though.) If you just purchase "Couscous", you're just eating cute, white-flour pasta.
 
royermom 
May 8, 2011 5:52 pm
Actually, couscous is NOT white-flour pasta. Couscous is made from durum wheat semolina before it is ground. Semolina is the endosperm or heart of the durum wheat kernel -a hard wheat variety with very high gluten content and high protein to carbohydrate ratio. The grains of semolina are prepared in several steps including dampening the grains with handfuls of water and working them between the hands to break up clumps into ever smaller granules. It has a yellowish cast to it naturally from the amber color from the durum wheat. Whole wheat couscous is a whole different thing, made from other wheats. ref: from The Epicurean Table,© 2003 - 2006 www.epicureantable.com, Patricia Conant,columnist and food writer
 
Nancy Supporting Member (Click to learn more about Supporting Membership)
Jul. 9, 2011 4:49 pm
great info, thanks for clarifying!
 
Welsbacher 
Dec. 15, 2011 11:53 am
Can you use brown rice instead of barley in a recipe? I need to use mushrooms and acorn squash before they get too old and I don't have barley or a chance to go to the store.... brown rice OK, you think?
 
 

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