Sprouting Grains, Whole Grain Cookbooks and More

Having a small collection of whole grain cookbooks along with a few standby whole grain recipes and practical tips makes it very easy (and tasty!) to incorporate whole grains into your daily diet.

Time-Saving Clean Cuisine Whole Grain Cooking Tip

We suggest you keep a big batch of cooked whole grains in your fridge at all times.

Having prepared whole grains ready-to-eat makes putting together Clean Cuisine meals super easy! Without a doubt the easiest way to cook any whole grain is in a rice cooker, our favorite being the VitaClay Chef Gourmet Rice & Slow Cooker Pro.

After they are cooked, whole grains will keep nicely in the fridge stored in 100% green Fridge-X Silicone Storage Containers by Xtrema for up to three days. You can even freeze cooked whole grains in your FridgeX storage containers and they will keep for about a month.

We then add cooked whole grains to vegetable soups, chilis or salads. We eat them for breakfast with lots of fruit and a bit of hemp milk (one of our son’s favorite breakfast whole grains is millet mixed with raisins, chopped pears and cinnamon.) We also mix whole grains with beans and lots of finely chopped sautéed veggies. We make whole grain pilafs for dinner, sometimes with a poached organic pastured egg on top. The point is ready-to-eat cooked whole grains are incredibly versatile!

 Clean Cuisine Go-To Whole Grain Recipes

The following two stand-by whole grain recipes are easy to make and hearty enough to be served as entrees with either a poached pastured egg, seared tofu or tempeh or a bit of pastured chicken on top:

• Millet Fried “Rice”, 2 Ways: Click HERE for the recipe

• Easy Quinoa Risotto: Click HERE for the recipe

Did You Know Sprouted Whole Grains are the Healthiest?

Sprouting releases all the vital nutrients stored within whole grains. Sprouting grains (seeds too) before cooking produces living, nutrient-rich food. The flour made from these grains will also yield more protein, vitamins and minerals than refined flours. In addition, sprouting neutralizes phytic acid, a substance present in grains that inhibits some nutrient absorption.

Sprouting whole grains is easy it is just time-consuming (you can search online for how to do it if you are interested.) However, if you are like us and you don’t have time to sprout your whole grains you might want to consider buying sprouted grains from TruRoots. And of course we are crazy for flourless sprouted bread by Food for Life (found in the frozen food section of your supermarket or natural foods store.)

A Great Guide to Cooking With Whole Grains

If whole grains still intimidate you, this is the book you need to buy:

 Ancient Grains for Modern Meals, by Maria Speck is a terrific resource for learning how to cook with whole grains. Even if you weren’t the slightest bit interested in the health benefits of incorporating whole grains into your diet, the recipes in this cookbook are guaranteed to whet your appetite. It was even selected by the New York Times and the Washington Post as one of the top cookbooks of 2011. It received the coveted Julia Child Award, the Health and Special Diet Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) as well as a Gourmand Award. Ancient Grains for Modern Meals contains 100 Mediterranean-inspired whole grain recipes—from amaranth to wheat berries, so there is something for everyone! Note: not all of the recipes in this book are “Clean Cuisine” approved as-is because some call for dairy cream, but you can easily give them a Clean Cuisine makeover by substituting hemp cream or cashew cream for the dairy cream.