Wheat Berry & Roasted Vegetable Bowl with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto {Restocking the Pantry}

Hello again friends! I’ve got a simple recipe for you today, but also a quick first take on a new farm I just discovered where I ordered some bulk pantry items. Most everyone who knows me should know by now I keep a very well stocked pantry. Often I have joked around about how I may not last long in an apocalyptic situation, but at least I won’t go out hungry. After following a plant-based way of eating for almost eight years now, I have learned to keep any variety of beans, lentils and whole grains in my dried stores to be able to rotate out my meals to keep from getting bored and also ensure I get all the nutrients my body could need. I always have staples like black beans and chickpeas around, but also play around with different whole grains like farro, quinoa and lately Job’s tears after finally finding some locally.

One of my favorite local shops where I used to buy my bulk items closed down a while back (Life Grocery), and then along with the changes to shopping with the pandemic, it has become a bit harder to be able to find a wide variety of bulk items locally. One of the stores still has “bulk”, but it’s all pre-packaged into plastic bags, defeating the purpose of buying in bulk, IMHO. There are quite a few reasons why I like buying at least a few pounds of my dried goods at one time:

1. It’s cheaper.
2. You can get goods with no added fillers/preservatives/sodium and cook them to your liking.
3. We go through quite a lot since I cook almost all of our meals at home, so I don’t want to have to go to the store constantly.
4. I actively try to reduce the waste I produce, so bulk buying means less packaging.
5. Though I might not be all-in on doomsday prepping, it can’t hurt to be prepared with some items in case the unknown keeps you at home for a time.

Recently I started searching online to see if there was a good source from whom I could purchase greater bulk quantities than I seem to be finding locally at the moment. I figure if I order in enough of a bulk, it still balances out and makes sense from an ethical/environmental perspective. Happily, I recently landed upon a company that very much seems to fit the bill: Palouse Brand. A family of farmers going back five generations, conscious farming practices, field tracing for their products, and they are in the United States! I couldn’t not place an order to give their goods a try.

For my first order I stuck with some classics from Palouse and their sister brand, Clear Creek, which is how they expanded their product line by partnering with other regional farmers. I opted for five-pound bags of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and lentils, along with a four-pound bag of black beans. They had a number of sizes in the individual bags, or you could save a little bit of money by buying a bundle with a few different varieties as I did with the lentils and chickpeas. I will definitely go back on the site to order some of the other lentils, especially since they had some like golden lentils, which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen around here!

I was happy to see the larger bags were burlap, which I’m sure we’ll find a way to repurpose. In addition to the legumes, I also ordered some of their hard red winter wheat berries. My parents love wheat berries in their whole grain rotation, but for some reason I don’t purchase them as often. They are not as common to find locally, though you usually can find them if you look hard enough. The great thing about Palouse is that they have a number of different varieties they offer. Hard/soft, red/white, spring/winter–each has a slightly different texture and flavor. People often grind them down to use as flour, so depending upon what you are baking you might also choose different varieties. I love nutty, chewy grains, which is why I purchased the hard red variety. Perhaps some day I’ll go so far as to start grinding my own flour, but for the most part I will use them cooked whole in soups, salads and the like.

Speaking of, I suppose I should get to why many of you are actually here–the food! I haven’t cooked up any of the beans or lentils yet, but I can attest to the wheat berries being of excellent quality. I can only imagine the rest of my haul will follow suit, but I’ll update later once I dig into those bags of goodness. 😉

Wheat Berry & Roasted Vegetable Bowl

• 1 cup dry wheat berries, cook according to directions
• 1 cup dry white beans, cooked until soft (or 1 15-ounce can, rinsed & drained)
• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed & halved or quartered if large
• 1 pound sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes), rinsed & sliced*
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 2/3 cup rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes (or about 1/2 cup if oil-packed)
• 1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 handfuls dark leafy greens (I used dandelion greens but kale, arugula or traditional basil would work for the pesto, as well)
• pinch of salt and black pepper
• leafy greens to serve

Cook your wheat berries (or sub another hearty whole grain like farro) according to package directions. Mine took a good full hour on the stove top, so I cooked the other ingredients while the grains simmered away. The beans I also made from dried, which take about the same amount of time, but canned work excellent in a pinch!

While the grains cook, prepare your roasted vegetables. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse and trim your Brussels sprouts, place on a sheet pan and lightly mist with oil or a bit of low-sodium vegetable broth for an oil-free variation. Likewise, slice your sunchokes into quarter inch discs and place on a separate sheet pan, also misting with oil or a bit of broth. Sprinkle the seasoning between the pans. *If sunchokes aren’t available or not your thin, sub another seasonal vegetable of your liking such as sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, etc. Place in the oven and roast for 30-35 minutes, stirring once throughout. Putting them on separate pans means you can pull one out if it gets done before the other, but if you use vegetables that cook similarly by all means save some dishes and use a single pan.

Prepare your pesto as everything else continues to cook. Place the sun-dried tomatoes through the salt and pepper into a food processor. Blend on high until combined, adding a bit of broth or good quality olive oil as needed to get the texture you like. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.

Once everything is done, mix the grains, beans and vegetables in a big bowl with the pesto. Serve warm or cold over a bed of leafy greens for an extra hit of nutrition. A perfect way to enjoy the benefits of a “salad” without it feeling like a boring, unsatisfying bowl of plain vegetables!

The wheat berries really do bring so much texture to a bowl. They also have about 5 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber per quarter cup serving, making them a great item to add to a balanced meal plan. In addition to using as is or grinding to flour, their wheat berries are non-irradiated so you can sprout them for wheat grass for further health benefits. Perhaps I’ll give that a try at some point, as well!

Good quality ingredients make simple meals that much more delicious and satisfying. Just like with vegetables bought from local farmers or grown in your own backyard, you can tell a difference in flavor and quality when eating whole grains and beans sourced from a farm that really cares about their products. Of course I don’t mean to sound like a food snob. Ultimately we all need to do the best we can, and not everyone has the resources to buy 20 pounds of food in one go. I continue to be extremely grateful for the opportunity and knowledge to purchase foods from sources I feel good about. If we all do what we can, perhaps we can better support these small farms and bring about better opportunity for all people to have access to such wholesome food.

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