Wheat Recipes

 Recipes that I have posted on the blog are collected below.

This link to a booklet by the Utah Cooperative Extension looks like it was first published about 60 years ago.  It contains some pretty good information on using whole wheat.

This link is for a 22-page pdf of recipes and tips for using items that were included in food storage kits sold by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I would guess it dates to about the 1990s.  And it uses only the basics--wheat, flour, salt, oats, macaroni, dry milk, oil, sugar, and beans.  It's even got emergency baby food and formula recipes.  I highly recommend having a hard copy of this one.

The information and recipes found at both of the links above are so good that I wanted to post them on the main page of the blog, but for some reason I can't get them to work that way.  They're both pdf files and print up very easily.

Wheat-Broccoli-Bacon Salad

2 cups wheat, boiled for about an hour (or until soft), drained and rinsed
2 cups finely chopped fresh broccoli florets
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine cooked wheat, broccoli, and bacon in a serving bowl and set aside.  Combine mayonnaise, vinegar, and garlic powder in a small bowl and mix until smooth.  Pour over salad and stir well to distribute the  dressing.  If possible, chill at least two hours before serving. 

Now, I'm guessing a at least a few readers are thinking something along the lines, "Bacon? Fresh broccoli?  Mayo?  This salad may be fine for making now, but it doesn't look like something that's going to work post-collapse."

Yes, it will.  While I may be buying fresh broccoli right now, because it's almost winter here and the garden's been dead for awhile, post-collapse we will have broccoli in the garden in the spring and fall.  Making mayonnaise was actually covered in a post a few weeks ago  (11 November 2018).  And canning bacon will be covered in a future post (22 December 2018). 

Here's a recipe I shared with my food storage class years ago.  It calls for fresh peppers and cilantro, and a red onion.  So it would primarily be made in the summer using garden produce, but you could also substitute freeze-dried peppers if you have them.

Fiesta Bean and Wheat Salad

1 orange or red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 small red onion, diced
1 bunch fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper, cored and diced
juice of one lime (substitute True Lime packets)
1 cup wheat berries, boiled, drained, and rinsed
1 15 oz can corn, drained
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss well.  Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

And lastly, while searching about to see if there were any new recipes for using wheat berries, I came across this gem.  We had it last night for dinner (minus the mint, which I forgot to pick and I was in a rush to get dinner on so we had to do without). 

Wheat Berry Salad with Apples and Cashews

1 cup wheat berries, boiled, drained, and rinsed
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup orange juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 Granny Smith apples, cored, diced (or substitute 1 cup dehydrated apples, re-hydrated in 2 cups warm water and diced)
2 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped
½ cup cashews, toasted, coarsely chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
feta cheese (optional)

In a small bowl, mix the vegetable oil, orange juice, vinegar, coriander, and cinnamon. Set aside.
To the wheat berries, add apples, mint, onions, and cranberries. Toss with the dressing to coat. Prior to serving, add the toasted cashews and feta cheese.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

2 1/4 cups warm water (about 100 degrees)
1 1/2 tablespoons fast-rising yeast
pinch sugar
1 tablespoon dough enhancer, optional (recipe to be posted tomorrow)
1/2 cup gluten flour
7-8 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup dry milk
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
3 eggs
1 tablespoon salt

Put the warm water, yeast, sugar, dough enhancer, gluten flour, and 1-2 cups of whole wheat flour in your mixing bowl and combine well.  (This is sometimes called a "sponge.")  Let this mixture proof for 15-30 minutes.  Then add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.   Continue adding flour, if necessary, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Oil your hands and the counter where you will be kneading the dough, re-oiling as necessary.  Do not use flour to prevent sticking, as this may make your bread unnecessarily dry.  Knead for 8-10 minutes, until dough is nice and smooth.  Cover with plastic or a damp cloth and let rise.

When dough has doubled in volume, punch it down, and separate dough into three equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a rectangle, and then starting on the short side, roll it up and pinch ends together to seal.  Repeat with the other two pieces and place each log into a greased bread pan.  Let rise until doubled in volume again.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the loaves reaches 190 degrees.  Remove from oven and let cool for ten minutes in the pans.  Then remove from pans to cooling racks and let cool completely.  Store in plastic bags when completely cooled and dry.

Flour Tortillas

4 cups flour
1/3 cup bacon grease (or lard or shortening, or I've read of some people using oil)
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups hot water

In a large bowl, stir the salt into the flour and then cut in the bacon grease or other fat using a pastry blender or a fork.  Stir in the hot water and then as soon as cool enough to handle start kneading, and continue until it is smooth and elastic, about eight minutes.  It is far better to have dough that is a little sticky rather than too dry.

Pinch off a ball of dough about the size of a golf ball, form it into a ball, and start rolling it out.  Roll very thin and put on cast iron skillet to cook, watching carefully so that it doesn't burn.

Pumpkin Blender Wheat Waffles with Caramel Sauce

1 cup milk (3 tablespoons powdered milk and 1 cup water)
1 cup + 2 tablespoons wheat kernels, whole & uncooked
2 eggs (2 tablespoons powdered eggs and 1/4 cup water)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup oil

1/2 cup pureed, cooked pumpkin

1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons sugar

Put milk and wheat kernels in blender. Blend on highest speed for 4 or 5 minutes or until batter is smooth. Add eggs, oil, baking powder, salt, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and sugar to above batter. Blend on low. Pour batter into hot prepared waffle iron and cook.

Caramel Syrup

3/4 cup butter

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

Combine ingredients in sauce pan (it gets frothy so make sure and use a large enough pan so it doesn’t spill over). Stirring constantly, heat sauce until boiling and then boil for 5 minutes.