Knowledge Base > Barton Seaver - Great Grains!

Great Grains!

Barton Seaver - Great Grains!

This event was on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Barton Seaver to discuss the wide world of grains – from barley and corn to quinoa and winter wheat berries, and everything in between. Whole grains offer great health bene… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Could you please give some suggestions for side dishes that integrate various grains?

— Judith Trusdell

Answer:

Yeah, probably right so Coastal to play so kelp is a really great one. This is a tabouli is wonderful. It's very easy. And as Katie said earlier, it's a great for using up what you got those three radishes Etc. All your leftover herbs. You know handful of cherry tomatoes that you can't still on the vine even here in Maine. There's still like three tomatoes out there. So taboolies are great what I really love are roasted vegetables with whole grains and just that that sweetness that pairs with the nuttiness of the grains are really great. So one tip for almost all whole grains is to toast them first before cooking just activates a lot of the oils and natural flavors that are in the brand which is that outer covering you don't need to toast them deeply but just to sort of activate those oils and those flavors first, whether that's sauteing them in a little bit of olive oil before you make your peel off toasting them dry and an oven before you make a peel off Etc. It really just brings out so much more flavor think about just steamed rice versus rice pilaf, right? They seems like entirely different dishes even Um, so there you go a couple of other ones so really rusted butternut squash throw some radishes on there some parsnips throw it in there. Sweetness is a really great component of a really great contrast to the nuttiness the earthiness of whole grains acidity also works really well, especially sweet acidity in the form of citrus. So mixing, you know lime juice in there with roasted butternut squash some parsley or cilantro and some red wheat berries would be fantastic. You know, it's it has just a hint of sort of that Asian flavor. Well from Southeast Asian flavor from the lime and cilantro, but it doesn't take the dish outside. You know, it's still compatible with anything else you're going to put on the plate so fresh herbs roasted vegetables wheat berries are any any whole grain citrus juices if you need a little bit more sweetness mix some orange juice along with your lime juice there. So another thing that's really great are roasted beets. You know it beat salad or well just say something that is mostly beats rusted beads boiled beads that are then diced up not marinated a little bit of citrus juice or red wine vinegar and some olive oil tossed with some whole grains and something really great to do with whole grains is once you've cooked them dry them, you know, strain them dry them Pat them dry with some paper towels and then put a little olive oil on them or not and just put them on a sheet tray and a single layer and throw them in the oven until they crisp and they pop and they get all sorts. Yeah, goodness. Crunchy textured all that and with that beat idea. I'm a big fan of raw beet salad. So take a Beat Just scrub it down with a brush on the outside. I don't peel it. There's lots of good nutrition in there and great flavor shred it on a box grater on the large on the large holes and then mix that with some cooked whole grains good amount of salt some lemon juice and really great spicy olive oil would be tremendous.
Barton Seaver

Barton Seaver

Chef, Educator, Author

bartonseaver.com