Replace Refined Starches with Whole Grains
Whole Grain Ideas
- Make a whole-grain bread your primary (but not your only) offering.
- Make whole-grain buns and sandwich breads available. Don't position them as the "healthy" option. Slip the nutrition in.
- Make brown rice an option. Experiment with less-familiar whole grains like wild rice, quinoa, farro, kasha, cracked wheat, bulgur, and barley.
- Go halfway to whole grains. Add wheat berries to a hamburger bun or serve a mixed rice pilaf, with white, brown, and wild rice.
Whole-Grain World Tour
Americans have largely moved away from whole grains, but elsewhere, these nutritious foods remain firmly on the menu. Here, for inspiration, are how cooks in other countries and from other cultures treat these wholesome grains:
Barley
Pearled barley has had some of the bran removed but it is still considered a whole grain.
- Stuffing for roast duck (China).
- Breakfast porridge (Scandinavia).
- Twice-cooked rusks (Greece): These are softened in water, topped with chopped tomato, garlic, feta, and basil, and drizzled with olive oil.
- Scotch broth (Scotland): A soup of meaty lamb bones, barley, root vegetables, and cabbage.
- Crispbread (Norway): Griddle-cooked flatbread made with barley flour and whole-wheat flour.
Buckwheat
- Blini for caviar or smoked fish (Russia).
- Kasha: Buckwheat groats, typically toasted with egg, then cooked in water or stock (Eastern Europe).
- Kasha varnishkes: Buckwheat groats with egg noodles (Eastern Europe).
Corn
Most commercial cornmeal, grits and polenta are made from de-germed corn (with the germ removed). Stoneground cornmeal and grits are more likely to include the germ. Be sure to ask.
- Tortillas (Mexico).
- Buttermilk cornbread (Southern U.S.).
- Garlic cheddar grits (Southern U.S.).
- Cornmeal-blueberry pancakes (Southern U.S.).
Oats
Whether whole, steel-cut, rolled, or quick-cooking, oats are a whole-grain food. Add oatmeal to granola, breads, muffins, and fruit-crisp toppings. Add steel-cut oats to the breakfast menu and sprouted oats to sandwiches.
- Muesli (Swiss): Breakfast cereal with rolled oats, dried fruit, and nuts.
- Oatcakes (Scotland): Scone-like baking-powder breads.
- Buttermilk oat bread (Ireland): A baking-soda bread made with oats soaked in buttermilk.
Wheat
Cracked wheat and bulgur are staples of the Middle Eastern kitchen. They differ only in that bulgur has been pre-cooked, then dried before cracking. Farro is the Italian name for emmer, an ancient wheat variety related to durum wheat. It is delightfully nutty and chewy, an excellent addition to vegetable and bean soups.
- Farro and borlotti bean soup (Italy).
- Farrotto (Italy): Risotto made with farro and often mushrooms.
- Tabbouleh (Lebanon, Syria, Israel): Chopped parsley and bulgur salad with tomato, mint, and lemon.
- Bulgur pilaf with chickpeas (Turkey).
- Bulgur and lentil soup (Turkey).
- Green bean and bulgur pilaf (Turkey).
- Bulgur and chickpea salad (Lebanon).
- Greek soup of wheat berries, dried beans, lentils, and rice (Crete).
- Kibbeh: Ground lamb meatballs with bulgur (Middle East).