Just when you finally got familiar with quinoa, freekeh exploded onto the food scene. Once again, you're asking how to serve yet another grain into your family's healthy meals. We finally feel like it is familiar enough that most American customers can track it down without too much trouble. So the time is right for an excellent heart-to-heart to chat about this latest health-food friend. Freekeh (pronounced free-kuh or free-kah, by the way, the name is fascinating!) is an ancient grain, many times noticed right alongside other superfood heroes like spelt, quinoa, and farro. It's a type of wheat harvested early when the grains are still young and developing. The kernels then dried, roasted, dried, and rubbed. Technically, the term freekeh is the process of grain preparation and not what you call a particular grain variety. Yet, it typically refers to wheat, and commonly to durum wheat. So, although the freekeh process is applied to other grains, what you find on American shelves is generally wheat and should be clearly labeled as such.

How to Use Whole Freekeh

Freekeh works fantastic in lots of dishes – it's delicious in casseroles, soups, pilafs, and salads. Try it as breakfast, say, as a hot cereal the same way you might eat granola or oats. Besides using it in recipes explicitly made with this grain in mind, sub it in for rice, quinoa, farro, and other hearty grains.

Whole vs. Cracked

This grain sold as a whole and as cracked. It might be complicated, but primarily, "cracked" freekeh broken into smaller pieces. It helps to cook this grain faster and also gives it a slightly different texture.