Since beginning my love affair with quinoa, I’ve been slowly expanding my horizons with other grains. First I tried millet (I’ve got a YUMMY recipe to share… once I make it again and write it down…), then amaranth (which ended up all over my living room rug, thanks to our cat). I’d used some buckwheat (also called kasha) in my granola recipe and kind of loved the way it tasted, so thought I’d give it a go as a savory dish.
Turns out googling recipes for millet, amaranth, and buckwheat doesn’t yield as many results as I’d hoped.
Anyway, after some digging, I found two recipes (this one and this one, if you want to know) that seemed somewhat promising so I combined them and added a little flair of my own. The result was a whole grain pilaf that was delicious and satisfying.
Multi-Grain Pilaf
2 1/4 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1/2 cup kamut
1/3 cup pearl barley
1/3 cup kasha
1/3 cup bulgar wheat
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 T olive oil
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup roughly almonds
1. First of all, toast your grains in a dry pan until they are warm and fragrant, and then set them aside
.
2. Chop your onions and brown in the olive oil.
3. Add the garlic for a few minutes, watching it to make sure it doesn’t burn
4. Pour in the water and chicken broth (you could use all water or all broth, or do vegetable broth or whatever… Since it’s such a large amount of liquid I chose to dilute the broth so I didn’t use up all my backstock)
5. Add all your spices (thyme, bay leaf, rosemary, salt, pepper)
6. Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium heat
7. Add the kamut and cover, cooking for about 25 minutes (kamut takes around 30-45 minutes to cook, and since the other grains take about half that time, you want to give the kamut a headstart)
8. Once the timer goes off, add the rest of the grains and cook (again, covered) until the water is absorbed (you might need to add a little more liquid at this point to make sure the grains are cooked and aren’t too crunchy/chewy… I did)
9. Chop the almonds (just about any nut would taste delicious… One of my inspiration recipes called for walnuts, the other called for pecans; almonds just happened to be what I had on hand)
10. Once all the water is absorbed and your grains are cooked, remove the bay leaf, stir in the almonds, and enjoy!
PS: This recipe made a LOT for two people… We both ate our fill, and had 3 portions leftover for lunches later this week. If you aren’t serving a crowd or don’t want the leftovers, definitely cut this recipe in half.
PPS: You could probably use just about any grain you want. I added the kamut for texture since all the other grains were short and stubby, but you could easily leave it out and substitute millet for the bulgar and have a gluten-free version. I’m wondering what quinoa would taste like in this…
