Table of Contents
Childhood Memory– How an accident in the kitchen became a favorite food from my childhood.
Simple Ingredients– Swapping boxed cream of wheat for freshly ground wheat berries, a bit of Himalayan Sea salt and water. Super simple!
Simple Tools– A small coffee grinder, a medium sized saucepan and a whisk are the only tools needed.
Benefits of freshly milled wheat berries– A nutritional powerhouse filled with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, healthy fat and protein.
Lumps For Breakfast!
One of my earliest happy childhood memories is when my mom accidentally stepped away from a saucepan on the stove cooking up a batch of boxed cream of wheat. What was her mistake was a pleasant surprise for me- a warm bowl of cream of wheat with lumps. From that point on lumps for breakfast was a frequent request from me.
Fast forward to the present and I have discovered, much to my delight, that there is a simple way to experience a far superior version of the warm creamy comfort food from my youth. Swapping out the premilled boxed product with freshly ground organic einkorn wheat berries, Himalayan Sea salt and water was a very easy adjustment. It only takes a few minutes to grind the grain and cook it up on the stovetop. It is super simple!
For more nutrition I frequently add freshly ground flax seeds (which I also mill in the coffee grinder), fruit, raw honey or another unrefined natural sweetener, raw milk, and nuts. These add-ons are optional but do add a lot to the taste and complexity of the dish.
Similarly, the kitchen tools needed to make this comforting breakfast are super basic. First of all, a small coffee grinder is needed to coarsely grind the wheat berries. The only other tools needed are a medium sized saucepan and a whisk. That’s all that is required to put together this nutritious, creamy breakfast bowl.
Freshly ground wheat berry porridge is a simple way to introduce freshly milled grains into your diet, especially if you are new to the world of milling whole grains. This recipe only requires the use of a coffee grinder, which is quite inexpensive and can be bought at any Walmart or Target store. It is a great way to get started without having to invest in a grain mill, which is considerably more expensive. Of course, I do think the purchase of a grain mill is a great investment and a must have if you really want to get into whole foods baking. That is another conversation…
So why go through the effort of freshly grinding whole grains in the first place you may ask? The benefits of baking/cooking from freshly ground whole grains are vast. There are a few pioneers of the freshly milled grains community who have exhaustively layed out the health benefits for years. For example, Sue Becker from Bread Beckers is a legend in this field. The bottle line is the flour in the store, sitting on the shelf, is mostly stripped of the germ and bran portion of the wheat berry leaving mostly only the endosperm (starch and protein). Unfortunately, the germ and bran portions are where the vital vitamins, minerals, healthy fats and enzymes are found.
This is why freshly milling grains are so important to me. When I put the whole wheat berry in, the resulting flour that comes out is full of nutrition. None of the nutrition is sifted out. When I found out about the history of milling and the modern wheat flour sitting on the grocery shelves it was a game changer for me. There is no turning back for me!
Einkorn Porridge
Ingredients
- 1 cup coarsely ground einkorn wheat berries
- 3 cups water
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
additional add ons if desired:
- cream
- drizzle of pure maple syrup or raw honey
- pat of butter
- fruit such as banana slices, berries or diced apple
- sprinkle of cinnamon
- ground flax seeds for extra fiber
- chopped nuts and raisins/craisins
Instructions
- Grind the einkorn berries in a coffee grinder to desired coarseness. Add the ground berries into saucepan with the water and salt and slow boil while whisking until it thickens into creamy porridge. Add desired add ons and enjoy! It really is that simple.