{"id":17919,"date":"2020-11-10T16:32:10","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T15:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bistrobadia.de\/freekeh-guide\/"},"modified":"2024-01-25T12:01:33","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T11:01:33","slug":"freekeh-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bistrobadia.de\/en\/freekeh-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Freekeh – Everything you need to know about the green durum wheat."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While you may have only recently heard of freekeh, or even never heard of it, the green grain is legendary. Freekeh is not only incredibly delicious, healthy and versatile – it also has several origin stories. But more on that later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Freekeh?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Freekeh is basically durum wheat that is harvested unripe, i.e. still green. Subsequent processing is the key here, not only to preserve the grain but also to give it its special flavour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several funny spellings for Freekeh. For example, the grain also has names like Freek, Firik, Frique (you can play this endlessly…).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So: Freekeh = unripe (green) harvested durum wheat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is special about Freekeh?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When you harvest wheat green, i.e. unripe, it still contains a lot of liquid and is somewhat soft. If you were to store the wheat directly like this, the moisture would cause mould to form and the good stuff would go bad faster than you can say falafel. So the grain has to be dried first. And that happens in several stages and with a lot of fire. Freekeh is roasted over an open fire and thus dried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before the fire treatment, the durum wheat is first allowed to chill in the sun. This removes the first moisture and the chaff separates easily from the wheat. Then the wheat is given a good tinder. The laid-out wheat is then set alight very carefully and in a controlled manner. Since the wheat still contains some moisture, it does not burn. However, it had already been slightly loosened from the chaff by the bath in the sun. The fire now burns the loosened chaff and dries the wheat again without it burning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the fire treatment is through, the durum wheat is rubbed again by hand to get rid of the last traces of chaff. This is where Freekeh gets its name. Freekeh means “rub” in Arabic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what have we gained thanks to this procedure? In terms of taste, Freekeh gets its characteristic smoky flavour. The green-harvested wheat is preserved (lasts forever!) and the many nutrients are retained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legend<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But how does one come up with such an elaborate and incredibly clever procedure? Here we come to the legends surrounding Freekeh: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine living in the 23rd century BC and harvesting your wheat nice and early (for whatever reason<\/s> – it was an attack on the village) and store him in a hut and feel good. “Honey, winter can come. Make a pina colada…” (hardly) But suddenly lightning (or rather a torch) strikes and the whole hut goes up in flames. You think to yourself “OMG!!11!!1”, but as you clean up the charred remains of the hut, you discover that the wheat is not charred at all, but smells good and even tastes damn good – better than ever before. “Yaaay! Honey, I’ve found a gap in the market!” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, it can happen that a good product becomes even better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A real superfood!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That’s right, freekeh is an absolute superfood and similar to green spelt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is actually in it? Per 100g Freekeh contains (according to Wikipedia)<\/p>\n\n\n\n