There are two kinds of cravings: the bad kind and the good kind. Most of us are familiar with the bad kind: it sends us to Dunkin’ Donuts at 2 AM, keen on devouring a stale toasted coconut doughnut beneath the fluorescent glare. It’s the craving that forces hamburgers when you should be thinking salad, it’s the craving that tells you to add cream to that tomato sauce to make it oh-that-much-more decadent. And lots of cheese. And to make brownies for dessert which you serve with vanilla ice cream.
So, yes, we all know that craving. But every now and then a different kind of craving comes along; it’s a rare craving, the kind of craving that if it happens to you, count yourself among the lucky: it’s a craving to eat something heathy. When this happens, the clouds part, the sun beats down on your face and a choir of angels bursts into song. Should you have this craving, there’s no better place to turn than to my friend Heidi’s excellent cookbook, Super Natural Cooking.
I love this book and I flip through it often whenever I get that second type of craving. Unfortunately, more frequently than I’d like to admit, the good craving morphs back into a bad craving and I put the book down and I order a pizza. But sometimes the good craving endures and I make one of Heidi’s terrific recipes, like that time I made her Otsu.
This time, the word of the day (or two words of the day) was “wheat berries.” I was intrigued by Heidi’s recipe for Wheat Berry Salad; says Heidi in the little box below the actual recipe: “Plump wheat berries shimmering with an orange-flecked citrus dressing makes this a lively winter salad.”
What are wheat berries? Heidi explains on page 34: “This might strike some of you as obvious, but when you grind up a wheat berry, you get flour. Hard red winter wheat berries end up as higher-protein bread flours, while lower-protein soft wheat berries are ground into pastry or cake flours. Because they contain the bran and the germ, all wheat berries are nutritionally intact.”
Did you get all that? Don’t worry: the bottom line is if Heidi says it’s healthy, it’s healthy!
Now the hard part: finding wheat berries. The Key Food across the street didn’t have them; neither did the fancy shmancy Union Market on Union Street. I was ready to give up but then I remembered a store on 7th Ave., here in Park Slope, called “Back To The Land.” So I moseyed over there and sure enough they had a big, beautiful bag of wheat berries for not a lot of money. Look, here it is:
In fact, as you can see, the whole bag was $2.48. And that’s a big bag that’ll feed you for a long time: it’s a great investment, especially in this economy.
What’s great about this salad and Heidi’s recipes in general is that even though the overall idea of the recipe satisfies your good craving, there are so many flavorful touches–a citrus vinaigrette, feta cheese and pine nuts–that it also satisfies your craving to be bad. Sort of like dating an upstanding professional sort that’d wow your parents by day and who, by night, becomes a sex maniac. That’s how I feel about Heidi’s recipes.
And speaking of Heidi’s recipes, here it is–her recipe for sex maniac Wheat Berry Salad.
Wheat Berry Salad with Citrus, Pine Nuts, Feta and Spinach
from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking
Ingredients:
2 cups soft wheat berries, rinsed
6 cups water
2 teaspoons fine-grain sea salt, plus more as needed
Citrus Dressing:
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Fine-grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 generous handfuls spinach leaves, stemmed and well rinsed
1 cup toasted pine nuts (see page 206)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Combine the wheat berries, water and 2 teaspoons salt in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, until plump and chewy, about an hour or so. The berries should stay al dente, and the only way to be sure they’re done is to taste a few. Drain and season to taste with more salt.
To make the dressing, combine the orange zest and juice, lemon juice, and shallot. Whisk in the olive oil and season with a few pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
Toss the hot wheat berries with the spinach, pine nuts, citrus dressing, then top with the feta. Taste for seasoning and sprinkle with a bit more salt if needed.
Serves 4 to 6.
That looks so good!
That looks delightful! Hopefully some stores here in Jacksonville, FL sell wheat berries– I’ll be honest, I got blueballed by the local Whole Foods which apparently doesn’t carry skyr, so I remain skeptical. Could this recipe possibly work with something along the lines of bulgur wheat?
Oh that sounds awesome…I just bought a bunch of wheat and rye berries for a bread baking kick that I’ve been on so at least I’m stocked up (Integral Yoga Institute Foods carries all of this stuff also). I’ve also seen something similar in Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian that has a bunch of cayenne in it…gives things a nice little kick!
Ha, $2/lb for wheat berries. Glad I don’t live in NYC and I have my “hippie” co-ops where everything is in bulk.
I have some wheatberries from a Turkish shop, but the cooking instructions are in Turkish and I couldn’t work out how to make them edible! This looks great though, will be definitely giving it a go.
Heidi convinces –
Try something healthy, even
Once in a blue moon
I have Heidi’s cookbook and whenever I make something from it, husband says I should open up a restaurant:)
I love the idea of feta in this…how seriously yummy. I’m sold.
I just love wheat berry salad, and haven’t made my recipe in so long. Mine has portobello, and I serve it with roast chicken. I love the feta and spinach!
This and Otsu are two of my favorites from Super Natural Cooking! Since I started making Heidi’s recipes, I feel like I’ve been having a lot more healthy cravings, which is always a good thing!
Wheat salads are nice, I like the nutty texture and tooth they have, as well as how you can season them to your liking.
I don’t know why they’re now calling wheat grains wheat berries though. Perhaps grains have been getting a hard rap and berries are now better? *is terribly confused*
Back to the Land has some great stuff! Looks tasty.
Things like wheat berries, millet, kamut, and other non-mainstream grains at Whole Foods in the bulk aisle. If I can’t find it at the regular grocery store, chances are Whole Foods has it.
And the recipe looks yummy! I don’t have any wheat berries on hand, but I’ll bet it works alright with just about any whole grain variety.
It’s good with goat cheese as well. If you can’t find wheat berries in the future, why not use barley instead?
Whole Foods sells them.
Finally, you mention a cookbook that I actually already own!
Can someone describe the texture of cooked wheat berries to me? Or liken them to something else? I keep picturing grass seed for some reason. :-)
I made the Wheatberry Salad last night for dinner and it was delicious and I’m anxious to see how it does as a leftover today. My co-op carried hard wheat berries and hadn’t heard of soft ones so that’s what I used. What’s the difference beside the obvious?
I love that cookbook! If you haven’t already, you MUST try the mesquite chocolate chip cookies. Of course, mesquite flour is even harder to find than wheat berries – I got it at Live Live on 10th St. and 1st Ave. in the East Village. And good chocolate is essential – now that Dagoba has sold out to Hershey’s, I use Valrhona. :)
I love wheatberries! I just had some for lunch too! You can add them to your morning cereal/oatmeal for a nice crunch as well. It goes great with beans to make a balanced salad.