Wheat Meat

In Pam Crockett's Wheat Cookin' Made Easy on page 245 she has a recipe for Wheat Meat.  I love it.  Some others tolerate it.  Here are the ingredients and how I made it.

2 cups wheat berries
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 medium onion
4 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Oil for cooking

In Pam's book she calls for Bernard Jensen protein seasoning which she says can be found in a health food store. I did not have that so I used the above seasonings.  I need to fiddle with them a bit more...maybe add something with a bit of bite, but certainly more garlic.  More onion, too.

Put the wheat berries (I used white wheat) into a large pot and put more than twice as much water in.  Bring to a boil and cook until tender.  This takes quite a while.

Cooked white wheat berries.  Be SURE to refrigerate any leftovers as the do "go by" relatively quickly (within a few days) if left out, or in my case, transferred from one house to another without refrigerating upon arrival.

When wheat berries are fully cooked and soft,  drain in a colander then then put half of them into your food processor with half the sunflower seeds, onion, and seasonings.  Process until a nice finely chopped consistency.  I was going to say "pasty goo-like consistency" but you might be put off by that designation.  Empty into a good sized bowl and process the remaining half of the ingredients then mix all together and shape into balls which you will then flatten and put into hot oil in a (cast iron is what I used) frying pan, and let cook until they are nicely browned on the bottom the turn over and brown other side.

Burgers:about 3 1/2 inches across and a little more than 1/2 inch thick

If there is more mixture leftover after you have made the number of burgers you wanted,  put a little more vegetable oil in your frying pan and crumble the mixture in and let cook, stirring occasionally, until the crumbles are nice and brown.  They really will work in many recipes as a hamburger alternative.

Crumbles ready for taco seasonings and tortillas!

The burgers go well with vidalia onion sauce.  They are also great with mayonnaise and dill pickle chips on a whole wheat bun.

To read The Adventure of the Wheat Meat with the Grandchildren, go here.