Breakfast Wheat Berries

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Breakfast Wheat Berries

Wheat berries sweetened with honey and perfumed with rose water and spices make a delicious breakfast on their own or stirred into yogurt (that’s the way I prefer to serve this). Whether you use farro, kamut, spelt or wheat berries (and whether you are cooking them for breakfast or for dinner) the trick here is to cook the grains for as long as it takes for them to really soften and to splay (that is, to burst at one end).

Rating

Ingredients

  • 1cup wheat berries
  • 5cups water
  • Salt to taste
  • 1/4cup honey, agave syrup or brown sugar, or more to taste
  • 1/2 to 1teaspoon rose water, to taste
  • 1teaspoon ground anise or fennel seeds
  • 3/4teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/2cup raisins or other chopped dried fruit of choice
  • 1/3cup chopped walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, or a mixture for garnish
  • 2cups plain low-fat yogurt (optional)
  • Pomegranate seeds for garnish (optional)
Set base servings to enable scaling:

Directions

The night before, combine wheat berries, 1 quart of the water and salt and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour. Remove from heat, stir in the honey, agave syrup or sugar, rose water, anise or fennel seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins or dried fruit. Cover and leave overnight (or for 5 to 6 hours).

In the morning, add remaining cup of water to the wheat berries and bring to a simmer. Cook 30 to 45 minutes, stirring often, until berries are soft and splayed at one end. There should be some liquid surrounding the wheat berries (add more water if necessary). Taste and add more sweetener if desired.

Serve on their own with some of the liquid in the saucepan (stir in some milk if desired), or spoon about 1/3 cup yogurt into bowls and top with a generous spoonful of the berries, with some of the sweet broth. Top with a handful of chopped nuts and a few pomegranate seeds if desired.

Notes

Advance preparation: The cooked wheat berries will keep for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator. The dried fruit will continue to swell and will lose flavor, but it will be captured in the broth.

Nutrition

Info
Trans Fat: 0 gramsFat: 6 gramsCalories: 268Saturated Fat: 1 gramUnsaturated Fat: 5 gramsSodium: 798 milligramsSugar: 23 gramsFiber: 6 gramsCarbohydrate: 48 gramsProtein: 9 grams

Source: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016113-breakfast-wheat-berries