Get your Freekeh on
Durum wheat is used to make so many of the carbohydrates many of us eat on a regular basis such as pasta and coucous, but I had no idea when I first came across freekeh when I lived in the Middle East many moons ago, that it also comes from the durum wheat plant. That’s probably because of the way it is prepared. The grains are picked when they are young (and therefore green), and then they are roasted in order to remove the outer shells. After, that, they cracked into a range of different sized pieces depending on what they are going to be used for, but can also be bought whole. It is this process of roasting that gives freekeh such a beautiful nutty, smoky flavour, and I think the larger wholegrains give just the right level of bite to satisfy the jaw and that way we sometimes salivate when we need a bit of crunch in our lives. As with most wholegrains, freekeh before it has been cracked contains lots of dietary fibre, and on top of this it’s higher in protein than your bog-standard wheat.
You cook freekeh a lot like you would rice or coucous- by adding a little fat to the pan (I like to use ghee at this time of year just for its Vata pacifying qualities, as well as the fact that it helps nourish and lubricate the body, helping any herbs you use to be absorbed in to the seven dhatus or tissue layers of the body), adding any dried herbs and spices you’d like to use, and then coating the grain with the fat and spice mixture before topping up the pan with water. Cracked freekeh takes around the same amount of time to cook as couscous, but wholegrain takes a little longer than rice.
Although I love wholegrain freekeh, I made a slightly more family friendly version here and mixed it with couscous and quinoa before adding it to my melted ghee with fenugreek and black mustard seeds. Once I poured the water in, I added good quality vegetable stock and that was it. Quinoa ensures there’s a good amount of protein, and coucous is sometimes a great way to ensure that small people can keep what they’re eating on their spoons! Some leafy greens would be lovely with this dish, or some fresh parsley sprinkled on the top. Boiled or poached eggs with the greens would also work well, as would flaked almonds or pine nuts, especially on cold, damp days. Because freekeh has been through a roasting process already, it makes it easier for the body to digest. This means that whilst it satisfies a certain need for ‘stodge’, it doesn’t fill us up too much, and it is more easily absorbed than the pasta side of its family! You can buy big bags of it in Turkish supermarkets, ‘ethnic’ (urgh!) shops and so on, but it only seems to be sold in the usual high street supermarkets or health food shops in tiny bags which seem to cost a LOT. So, don’t be fooled- it’s not another superfood which you need to spend lots of money on- just ask the entire levant, half of North Africa and some of the Gulf- it’s delicious, it’s common, it’s cheap and it’s super easy to make. Most importantly though, it has an amazing name*!
*Please note- it can be spelled freekeh, frikeh and probably a few other ways as it’s been transliterated from Arabic