About Whole Grains

I love millet because it's one of the more mild flavored grains. Actually, it has the slightest taste of cornmeal in my opinion.

It's also very easy to make millet- it's just like cooking rice! First, clear it of any gravel. Second, rinse well (you have no idea how important this step is unless you haven't done it).

Next, bring two cups of water to a boil for every one cup of millet. Add millet to water, as well as a pinch of salt and a little olive oil or butter. Cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

This will produce a nice, fluffy millet. Careful though, millet expands more than rice. Make sure that there's plenty of room in the pot.

Millet is packed with manganese, tryptophan (avoid turkey when eating millet!), magnesium, and phosphorus. It also contains 285 calories per cooked cup. Click here for more detailed information.

I love bulgar wheat for a different reason for loving millet. Bulgar wheat is the easiest grain that I've ever cooked.

Take 1 cup of boiling water. Pour it over 1 cup bulgar. Cover, allow to sit for 30 minutes.

You don't even have to stir it! It's crazy!

Bulgur wheat actually tastes like very bland bread. That's exactly what it tastes like, and if it weren't for the texture, I'd encourage you to go ahead and stir in peanut butter and jelly.

Bulgur wheat is very soft and fluffy once cooked. Even though it's slightly milled, it retains all of its nutrients, so you're not losing anything by using bulgur instead of the wheat berry.

Bulgur is a good source of Thiamin, Iron, and Phosphorus, as well as containing a bit of calcium.

It seems to be a little lower in protein than other whole grains, which also explains why it had less "staying power" for me. Still, you can't make anything easier, and the mild flavor of, well, wheat, should make its introduction to your diet fairly painless.

Amaranth is quite possibly the most nutritious whole grain ever. I also find it disgusting. I've heard that amaranth isn't supposed to be bitter when properly stored and rinsed, but I've yet had no luck in achieving this.

Amaranth absolutely must be sorted and rinsed thoroughly before cooking. Sorted because gravel tends to find its way in amongst the grains, and rinsed because that bitterness comes from saponins coating the grains. (Saponins can also interfere with the absorption of certain nutrients.)

The directions say to add 1 part amaranth to 2 1/2 parts boiling water, and simmer until tender. About 20 minutes.

My results? A glutinous mess with beads in it. While the grains seem to emit enough starch or something to make the water go all gooey, it doesn't seem to actually break the grain itself down. And so you end up with something that looks, and feels a bit like tapioca, but tastes much worse.

However, if you can get past that, amaranth is a great source of iron (containing 60% daily value!), calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and a number of other nutrients, minerals, and vitamins which are too annoying to type out.

I have one method left to try. I've heard that amaranth can be popped like popcorn. I love popcorn. We'll see about popamaranth.

Quinoa (pronounced Keen-Whah)is actually more closely related to foods like spinach than to any grain. However, it's packed with so many nutrients and enough fiber that it's often referred to as a "super-grain".

There are several varieties, of which I've tried two (regular white, and the red that you see pictured here). I honestly can't stand it, though I wish I could. It's said that you can replace rice with quinoa, but I think it would more appropriately replace lentils. It has a similar taste to lentils, with less of the dry lima bean flavor, and would probably cook well in soups and stews as lentils do.

Quinoa must be rinsed/washed thoroughly, as the "grains" are coated in a soapy substance that is slightly bitter. In this manner, quinoa is much like amaranth, and also like amaranth is at the tops if you're looking for nutrition.

Online Pastry Chef has invented a quinoa recipe that sounds quite yummy! I haven't tried it yet, but follow that link and check it out. There's some great information in that post as well, but my favorite part is where it says "Fluff with fork. Put in face."

WHFoods.com had much more information on the health benefits and cooking methods for quinoa.

I'm sure that everyone has tried popcorn, but as it's my favorite "whole grain" (I get such a kick out of seeing that on the label), I'm giving it a little air time. Pun intended.

We all know that popcorn doesn't really have any useful nutrients, but it is packed with fiber. Now, I could go into a long discussion on why fiber is important, how useful it is, blah blah blah, but I'm sure you already know all of that.

But here's a great way to actually use popcorn for more than just your colon's health. Nutritional yeast.

Nutritional yeast is... well, nutritious! It's grown on molasses, contains chromium (mucho good for diabetics and insulin resistant people), and several of the vitamin B's. And it contains more protein than meat according to Sundance Nutritional Foods. Nutritional yeast has a slightly cheesy flavor, that is not very appealing at first bite, but quickly becomes addictive. I grew up eating it on popcorn and drove my mother silly with my obsession, often filling cereal bowls with just the yeast and eating it as a snack by itself. I never knew it was good for me until recently.

Since this lens is for grains, and not yeast, I encourage you to visit the site linked, or Google it for more info until I get a lens up.

Last week I discovered the joy of sprouting. Ok, so I didn't actually eat the wheat berries that I'd sprouted (I sprouted them to grow wheatgrass and for a bread recipe that failed miserably), but the actual sprouting was so FUN. Getting to see the new life almost on an hour to hour basis... But I digress.

Sprouted grains are even healthier than simply whole grains. You have all the nutrition of the grain itself, and, in theory, the nutritional value of the entire plant. Others explain it much better than I can, so try a quick Google search on sprouted grains. But really, try it! It's fun!

Did you know that 25% of any proceeds from this lens goes to Food For Everyone, a charity that teaches families how to grow more food in less space using less water. This benefits the recipients in healthful foods and economically. Not only do they provide enough food for themselves, but often have an abundance left over that can be given away or sold!

If you're interested in books on organic gardening by the organization, you can purchase them here.