Recipe: Winter Wheat Berry Salad with Figs & Red Onion (2024)

FAQs

Do wheat berries have to be soaked? ›

This step isn't necessary, but it will cut back on the cooking time down the line and make things easier. After the berries have been soaked for at least 12 hours, drain them into a bowl.

Nutritional Summary:

There are 416 calories in 1 serving of wheat berry salad.

🥣 Storage. Cooked wheat berries should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge, for 3-5 days. Cooked wheat berries can easily be frozen. It's a great idea to make a large batch and freeze portions so you can always have a healthy whole grain ready to go.

It's important to have a tight-fitting lid to keep bugs, pests, and moisture away from the wheat berries. Personally, I keep my bulk wheat berries in 3 gallon food-grade buckets from Uline with a gamma seal lid. A gamma seal lid attaches to the bucket like a normal tight-fitting lid, but the top screws on and off.

Wheat berries can cause allergic reactions in some people as they contain gluten. People with wheat allergy, celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity should avoid wheat berries.

Wheat berries actually contain the bran, germ and endosperm of the entire wheat kernel. Typically the wheat kernel is processed to form things like bread and pasta. But with the entire kernel still intact, the wheat berry packs serious health punch of fiber, protein and vitamins.

Wheat berries — the whole, unprocessed kernel — can be ground into flour for making bread, or cooked and eaten like rice in pilafs, casseroles and stews. Whole wheat has long been prized for its fiber, which promotes good digestion. A complex carbohydrate, it's also helpful in controlling type 2 diabetes.

Wheat is the most commonly consumed grain in the United States, yet wheat berries are surprisingly uncommon on American shopping lists. They are wheat at its most basic: the whole grain kernels with only the inedible husk removed. Wheat berries are the original source of all wheat products before any refinement occurs.

That's right, wheat berries' shelf life, when properly stored, is 30 years or more. Remember, it's not just about storage, it's about proper storage. Think cool, dry, dark, and pest-free. Don't do it right, and you'll have ruined wheat before you know it.

Winter hardiness or cold tolerance is a physiological process triggered by gradually cooling temperatures in the fall. During the process of cold acclimation, certain genes within winter wheat begin to initiate the production of “anti-freeze” type substances to protect the cell membranes.

Should you soak wheat berries before planting? ›

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SPROUTING WHEAT BERRIES

Soak at least 6 hours or overnight. Drain all water off the wheat berries. Invert the jar over a bowl at an angle so that the wheat berries will drain and still allow air to circulate. After 8-12 hours of draining, rinse and drain again.

Soaking, fermenting or sprouting your grains before cooking them will neutralize the phytic acid and release the enzyme inhibitors, thus making them much easier to digest and making the nutrients more assimilable.

It is extremely important to clean the wheat thoroughly before preparing it for milling. Once contact between the wheat and the water has been established, it needs time to penetrate the grain. This time varies in the industry between 12 and 48 hours.

A full 24-hour soak for whole grains is usually enough to bring most seeds and grains to the verge of germination, and it's long enough to inactivate the anti-nutrients (the enzyme inhibitors and phytates). It also hydrates the grain, so that it doesn't need to hydrate itself in our belly.