How to Cook Wheat Berries

Learn how to cook wheat berries, why wheat berries are good food storage ideas, and alternatives to rice or other grains alternative ideas. I love them cooked for wheat berry salad recipes or healthy bowl recipes!

How to Cook Wheat Berries Whole Or Grind for Flour

Not long ago, we started using wheat berries and we especially love them as healthy bowl ingredients to use instead of rice.

But, you can do lots of things when cooking with wheat berries, including grinding the wheatberries into flour to use for baking.

Wheat berries are an ideal food storage item for your prepper pantry because they last a very long time when stored and you can use them for breakfast, to make soups heartier or fillers to stretch meals, or grind them for flour and baking.

FOOD STORAGE TIP: If you're going to add wheat berries to your longterm food storage, I recommend also adding a manual grains grinder like this and a vacuum sealer. Your grains will last longer if you store them whole and then only grind them to flour when you need the flour. (Don't grind the flour to store longterm.)

If you’re just learning about wheat berries, let’s start with a definition…

What are wheat berries?

Wheat berries are whole, unprocessed kernels of wheat before anything’s been ground into flour.

Basically, wheat berries are flour before it becomes flour.

Each “berry” includes all three parts of the grain:

• the bran (outer shell)
• the germ (the nutrient-packed core)
• the endosperm (the starchy middle)

They’re super nutritious and full of fiber, protein, and vitamins.

Wheat berries can be ground to make whole wheat flour or you can cook them for breakfast or lunches and dinner (and they're very filling!). That makes them perfect cheap dishes for longterm food storage and pantry foods!

Wheat berries are a little larger than rice grains. They look like tiny, tan /white-ish or reddish-brown seeds and, when you cook them, they’re chewy with a slightly nutty flavor—kind of like farro or barley, if you’ve had those.

You can eat them cooked whole in salads, soups, and breakfast bowls, or grind them up to make fresh whole wheat flour at home.

Where do you buy wheat berries?

Wheat berries can be found in the grains section of some grocery stores and natural food stores.

Look near the areas where they keep rice, barley, beans, etc. 

To save on cost, we buy our wheat berries in bulk like this.

Then, I portion out 1-2 cups dried wheatberries (uncooked) and vacuum seal them in serving packages.

If you prepare wheat berries for long-term food storage like this and store them in a cool, dry place, they will last for YEARS.

(I’ve read that stored correctly, wheat berries last 30 years to indefinitely!)

IMPORTANT: Be sure to keep dry because any moisture will cause wheat berries to sprout or grow mold. If your wheat berries are moldy, smell "off" or rancid, or the texture seems to have changed, don't eat them and discard them instead.

Obviously, if you’re gluten-free, have wheat allergies, Celiac disease, or other conditions that make you sensitive to wheat, you don’t want to cook with wheat berries.

TRY OUR WHEAT BERRY SALAD RECIPE HERE

Cooking Wheatberries

How do you cook wheat berries?

Wheat berries are simple to cook!

The best way to cook wheat berries:

• Cover them with water in a large pot
• Add a pinch of salt
• Bring wheat berries to a boil
• Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until soft when pierced

After cooking, wheat berries will still retain a firm but chewy texture.

IMPORTANT COOKING NOTE: Wheat berries don't get soft like rice. They will retain a firmer texture and be more chewy. They should not be crunchy after cooking.

You can then serve wheat berries warm or cold, depending on your recipe!

Should wheat berries be soaked before cooking?

I soak wheatberries overnight before cooking, but it’s not necessary that you soak them.

Soaking wheat berries makes them cook faster and also helps remove some of the things that make wheat hard to digest for some people.

After soaking, discard the water and then place in fresh water in a pot for cooking.

Wheat berries are finished cooking when they’re tender and softer and you can pierce them. (I just use my fingernail.)

You can start checking if wheat berries are cooked around the 30 minute mark. You may find that your wheat berries cook faster (or need more time) based on how much you are cooking.

RECIPE NOTES: 1 cup of dry wheat berries makes around 3.5 cups of cooked wheat berries. 

Different Types of Wheat Berries and Wheat Berry Color

There are different types of wheat berries – hard, soft, white, and red.

You can cook any of them for cooked dishes (like breakfast cereal, bowl recipes, or salad recipes) or you can ground them for flour to make baked goods.

They type of wheatberry you use for baking will depend on what you’re baking. If you’re making a hearty bread, you might use hard, red wheat berries.

If you’re making fluffy baked goods like cookies or pancakes, you could use soft, white wheat berries.

ALSO CHECK OUT: How To Save Money For Groceries

About Hard Wheat Berries

USE FOR: Denser bread flour or cooked dishes when you want more chew than soft rice.

Hard wheat berries are high in protein and gluten, making them ideal for bread baking.

When you grind hard wheat berries, they produce a dense, chewy flour — the same used in recipes like artisan breads and hearty and nutty bread recipes.

COOKING TIP: If you sometimes have a hard time digesting gluten, you may want to try soft, white wheat berries instead.

Use hard wheat berries for:

• Grain bowls in place of cooked rice
• Chewy wheat berry salad
• Breakfast bowls with fruit, nuts, and honey (like you would make oatmeal)
• Hearty homemade sandwich bread flour
• Artisan sourdough flour
• Pizza dough flour
• Bagel flour
• Pretzel flour
• Whole wheat pasta

About Soft Wheat Berries

USE FOR: tender, fluffy baked goods or cooking for dishes.

Soft wheat berries are lower in protein and gluten, which makes them great for other baked goods like muffins, pancakes, cookies, and pastries.

They grind into a lighter, softer flour that’s ideal for recipes where a more delicate flour is needed like pancakes. (Think of the things you would typically use white flour for in recipes.)

They’re also perfect if you want all the benefits of whole wheat without that strong “whole wheat” flavor.

Use soft wheat berries for:

• Breakfast cereal (like porridge or oatmeal)
• Bowl recipes
• As an alternative to rice
• Salad recipes
• Muffins flour
• Pancakes or waffles flour
• Pasta flour
• Cookies flour
• Cake flour
• Pie crusts flour
• Quick breads flour (banana, pumpkin, etc.)
• Biscuit flour
• Scones flour
• Homemade crackers
• Flour tortillas

About White Wheat Berries

White wheat berries come from a lighter-colored wheat variety that’s naturally milder in flavor.

They have a slightly sweet, less bitter taste compared to red wheat and not as dense and chewy as red wheat berries.

White wheat berries come in both hard and soft.

White wheat is a favorite for whole grain baking that doesn’t taste too “wheaty” like used in recipes for muffins, pancakes, and cookies.

ABOUT WHEAT BERRY COLOR: Wheat berries color does not play a role in cooking, but it will affect the taste. You can cook both colors of wheat berries or grind either of them for flour.

About Red Wheat Berries

Red wheat berries have a robust, hearty flavor and a reddish-brown outer bran layer. They are probably the strongest wheatberries, in my opinion.

Hard red wheat is common in whole wheat baking. These are the wheatberries used in traditional whole wheat flour and give wheat baked goods that bold, nutty taste.

If you’re looking for a rustic bread flour, grind red wheat berries and use that flour for baking.

Red wheat berries also come in both hard and soft.

MORE RECIPES: If you're grinding wheatberries for fresh ground flour, you may also be interested in how to make homemade sourdough starter for sourdough bread.

I hope this helped with ideas for how to cook wheat berries.