Recipe: High Fiber Triple Grain Pilaf

Ready for a good fiber blast?! Try this high fiber triple grain pilaf instead of your usual rice dish. Adding more fiber into your diet will not only keep your digestion moving along, but eating more natural foods and less processed ones will give you more nutrients in your diet. Most on this after the recipe.

High Fiber Triple Grain Pilaf

6 cups vegetable broth
1 cup whole barley, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup millet, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups green onions, sliced
1 cup yellow onion, diced
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
2 Tbsp sesame oil
1 bunch spinach, destemmed, and roughly chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 Tbsp Braggs seasoning
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

In a saucepan, place 3 cups vegetable stock and pearl barley, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45-50 minutes or until barley is tender. Remove from heat, drain off any excess liquid, and set aside. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, place the remaining vegetable stock, millet, quinoa, and salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes or until the grains are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Drain off any excess water, leave the grains in the saucepan covered, and let sit for 5 minutes to allow the grains to steam.

In a large non-stick skillet, saute the green onions and yellow onion in coconut oil for 5 minutes to soften. Add the mushrooms and saute an additional 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sesame seeds, and saute an additional 2-3 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add the sesame oil and all three cooked grains to the skillet, and saute for 3 minutes to heat through. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to saute until the spinach wilts. Taste and adjust the seasonings, as needed.

Serves 8-10

A Variety Of Whole Foods

What is the benefit of fiber and whole foods you might wonder? Our bodies are capable of amazing things like recovering and regenerating itself – but in order to do that it needs a wide variety of whole foods rich in vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidants. The best way to get those much needed things is from natural, whole foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and grains.

Whole Grains

Be sure to choose the whole grains, not ones that have been stripped of their outer husk (that has the most fiber and many of the nutrients – it’s like peeling your fruit) or have been pre-ground, heated, irradiated, or otherwise processed. If it doesn’t look exactly like it grew on the plant – it isn’t a whole grain.

Some common types of whole grains are:

• wild rice
• brown rice
• whole wheat
• oatmeal
• whole oats
• barley
• whole rye
• bulgar

Some less common ones include:
* amaranth
* millet
* quinoa
* sorghum
* triticale
* spelt
* kamut
*couscous

Here’s a good guide on how to cook grains. Buy organic when possible, it will be free of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and have a higher nutrient content.

Try a few of these and see which are your favorites. Mix it up in this recipe too, be adventurous. You might find you really like something you’ve never heard of until now.

See you next week when we look at Couscous!

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High Fiber Triple Grain Pilaf Photo Credit: Her View Photography

Also seen in the photograph, red lentil dahl and roasted root vegetables.