Wheat

Wheat is one of the oldest cultivated grains no one can say where it originated. The Chinese were cultivating wheat nearly three thousand years before Christ. It was milled into flour in the Ancient Egypt.
It is the most important cereal crops in the world, mainly in the form of bread and noodles, nourishing more people than any other grain.Whole wheat is a highly nutritious food, offering a good supply of protein, B vitamins, and minerals (iron, magnesium, and manganese)

Forms of Wheat
There are a lot of wheat varieties. They are determined depending of the planting season, hardness of the grain, and the color of the kernel.

These wheats may be combined in these different products:

Wheat berries
Bulghur: wheat kernels that have been parboiled, dried and crushed. It has varieties of textures from coarse to fine. It has a soft but chewy texture.
Cracked wheat
Rolled wheat
Flour

Basic Cooking Instruction
Whole wheat berries are cooked in twice their volume of water for 45 minutes or until the kernels are just tender.
Bulghur and cracked wheat can be use inerchangeably. The cooking time varies with the coarseness of the broken pieces of grain. Bulghur will cook faster than cracked wheat of the same size.

Composition

**Values are for 100 g**
	Wheat germ	Sprouted wheat
Proteins	23 g	7.5 g
Fats	10 g	1 g
Carbohydrates	52 g	42.5 g
Fibre	13 g	1 g
Main Nutrients
Calcium	39 mg	28 mg
Iron	6 mg	2 mg
Potassium	892 mg	169 mg
Phosphorus	842 mg	200 mg
Zinc	12 mg	1.5 mg
Magnesium	239 mg	82 mg
Thiamine	1.8 mg	0.2 mg
Riboflavin	0.5 mg	0.15 mg
Niacin	6.8 mg	3 mg

Recipe

Vegetables pilaf
1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 onion, chopped 1 celery stalk, chopped 1 carrot, chopped 100 g mushrooms, sliced 100 g bulghur or cracked wheat 4 tablespoon sunflower or sesame seeds 1 tablespoon fresh parsley salt	Sauté vegetables and mushroom together in oil until tender. Add bulghur and seeds, stirring until grain is slightly browned. Sprinkle with parsley and salt. Cover and simmer over low heat until all moisture is absorbed, about 15 minutes.