Do You Know Your Grains? {Recipe}

You've heard the saying ~ "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"  Well in our house last week it became ~ "When life gives you wheat berries, make Wheat Berry Soup!"

Last week while I was taking my little girls to ballet, I had left my older girl in charge of making rice.  But, when I arrived home, I found a pot of wheat berries happily cooking away!

It is easy to confuse the two...especially when they are in unmarked bins in the cupboard!

Here is what they look like when cooked:

So, not one to let food go to waste, I quickly did some research for a hearty Wheat Berry Soup!  The results were fantastic! 

Here's the recipe...with all of my variations as I did not have most of the ingredients on hand!

{The "secret ingredient" in this one is the lemon!}

Wheat Berry Soup

8 cups vegetable or chicken broth

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 large large carrots, finely chopped

1 medium onion, diced

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, plus more to taste

4 cloves garlic, minced

 3/4 teaspoon allspice

 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 cups Cooked Wheat Berries (We cooked ours the same way you would cook brown rice!)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add carrots, onion, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Add garlic, All Spice, and Nutmeg and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds more. Remove from the heat.
2. Transfer to Stock Pot and add vegetable stock, lemon juice and wheat berries.  Cook until heated through!

We served it with a yummy loaf of Crusty Garlic Bread and some Tabasco Sauce {for us spice lovers}!

I'd love to hear how you have improvised and discovered something new!!!

Thanks for stopping by! Be Refreshed!

Linking to: The Better Mom, Make It Yourself Monday