Wheat Berries?

 

There were Wheat Berries in the bag this week.  Wheat Berries are the whole grain of the wheat.  Kay has ground them into flour in the past, but has had requests for wheat berries recently (not from me!) so she included them in the bag.  Rather than let them sit around, I searched for a recipe and found one on Food Network from Ina Garten.  Ina always has delicious, simple recipes, so I gave it a go.  I put 1 cup of wheat berries in 3 cups of boiling salted water and then let it simmer for 45 minutes. There was a lot of discussion in the reviews if this was enough time. The wheat berries were chewy, but my vegetarian friend said the consistency was right.  If you were substituting wheat berries for meat in your meal, you would probably want it to be chewy, but you could cook them longer if you like a mushier consistency. 

After cooking the wheat berries and setting them aside in a large bowl.  I sauteed a chopped red onion, half a zucchini, a clove of garlic and a chopped carrot in 2 tbsp of olive oil.  I sauteed the onion for about 5 minutes, like Ina suggested, and added the other veggies for the last 3 minutes.  After I turned off the heat I added 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.  I combined the sauteed veggies, the warm wheatberries and a chopped scallion and 1/4 of a chopped cucumber plus salt and pepper.  It's important to let the salad sit for 30 minutes to allow the dressing to be absorbed by the wheatberries.  Ina's recipe included red pepper and did not include cucumber, but that is what I had and it turned out well.   It turned out well,  my husband and my vegetarian friend both loved it.

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