Whole Grain Video Links

Delicious meals start wtih whole grains

There's nothing like watching someone else cook to inspire you to make something new. Here are links to some fun whole grain videos that just may send you running to the kitchen to try your own hand at some delicious new ideas.

We've just added LOTS of new video links that we collected during Whole Grains Month (September) 2009. We're always looking for even more great whole grain videos to add to this page. Email Kara if you have any recommendations.

We've organized our videos into five sections:

  • Breakfast
  • Hot Main Dishes
  • Sides and Salads
  • Breads
  • Desserts and Treats

Breakfast

Peach French Toast Bake
LINK TO... Peach French Toast Bake video. (3:44)
WGC culinary advisor Ellie Krieger makes an easy dish for Sunday brunch. We love that she doesn’t make a big deal about using whole grain bread – she just does it ‘cause it’s the normal thing to do.  Best if you put it together at least two hours before you bake it for 40 minutes at 350°F – making it up the night before, like Ellie does, is even better.

Healthy Home-made Pancake Mix
LINK TO... Healthy Pancake Mix video. (2:02)
We're all trying to save money and eat fresher, more wholesome foods these days. Chef Keith Snow shows you how to create your own healthy pancake mix, with three different whole grains. One extra tip for whole grain pancakes: If you separate the egg and beat the egg white first, you'll get fluffier pancakes, as Mark Bittman describes next.

Whole Grain Pancakes
LINK TO... Whole Grain Pancakes, with Mark Bittman (5:41)
Mark Bittman, "The Minimalist" with the New York Times, shares his secret for light and tender whole grain pancakes: separating the eggs and beating the egg whites first makes all the difference. Warning: brief ad first.

Steel Cut Oats
LINK TO... Steel Cut Oats video (2:48)
Chef Keith Snow makes steel cut oats. While all kinds of oatmeal - instant, quick, regular, and steel-cut - are whole grains, steel cut oats have texture and nuttiness that appeals to many people who may not previously realized they love oatmeal. The downside? Cooking steel-cut oats can take 20 to 30 minutes. But you can short cut the process simply by soaking your grains overnight (see additional video).

Bethenny's Brown Rice Breakfast
LINK TO... Brown Rice Breakfast video. (2:54)
Bethenny Frankel reminds us that grains leftover from dinner can turn into breakfast on the go. The amounts are all suggestions. Just keep the general idea in mind: Grab some leftover grain, moisten it with milk, add nuts, raisins, a little sweetener (Bethenney's TBS of maple syrup seems a bit much) and maybe some flavoring, and voilà! Beats the price of buying oatmeal at a takeout coffee place on the way to work.

Homemade Granola
LINK TO... Homemade Granola video (3:33)
Pamela Dockery of TwoStews.com shows us how to make our own granola. Another great recipe to try with the kids on the weekend. They'll enjoy it for breakfast, or just by the handful as a healthy snack. We also enjoy homemade granola with a good farm yogurt and some fruit, in a parfait glass.

Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes
LINK TO... Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes video. (4:24)
Ellie Krieger's recipe for blueberry pancakes uses buckwheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour, for double whole grain goodness. Save some of the blueberries as a garnish. We sometimes like to cook the extra blueberries until they burst, and mix them with a small amount of maple syrup. Then, when you drench your pancakes in "syrup" you're getting mostly blueberry juice, and just enough syrup to add that wonderful maple flavor.

Blueberry Coffeecake
LINK TO... Blueberry Coffeecake video. (4:19)
Ellie Krieger's making a special weekend treat: Blueberry Coffee Cake. Enjoy a small piece with scrambled eggs or a vegetable omelet for breakfast.  If you use whole wheat pastry flour for all the flour, then beat one or both of the egg whites to keep the cake light.

Hot Main Dishes

Whole Grain Pita Pizza
LINK TO... Whole Grain Pita Pizza (1:25)
One of the most popular recipes in our own Dozen Easy Family Whole Grain Recipes collection is our whole grain pita pizza. Here's the video made by the Whole Grains Council to illustrate how it's done.

Saffron Shrimp over Quinoa
LINK TO... How to cook quinoa, with Dani Spies
LINK TO... Saffron Shrimp over Quinoa, with Dani Spies (2:45)
Dani Spies, a self-trained L.A. cook and fitness trainer, shows how (and why!) to cook quinoa, then follows with a second video showing us an easy quinoa dish.

Creole Sausage Shrimp Jambalaya
LINK TO... Creole Sausage Shrimp Jambalaya with Brown Rice video. (3:40)
Chef John of Foodwishes.com says he uses brown rice in this dish specifically because it adds a “great nutty flavor and texture” – not for nutritional reasons. Wherever the inspiration comes from, the end result sounds delicious.

Mushroom Barley Soup
LINK TO... Mushroom Barley Soup video. (5:47)
Chef and author Rita Nader Heikenfeld makes a savory barley soup. But don’t believe her when she says quick barley is a whole grain. Use hulled barley instead, and allow 45-50 minutes cooking time after you add the barley, to get whole grain goodness. (Sure it’s a bit extra time, but it’s no extra work.)

Whole Wheat Pasta with Smashed Cauliflower and Sausage
LINK TO... Whole Wheat Pasta with Cauliflower (9:21)
A very interesting Italian-inspired recipe. A bit of promotion for Whole Foods Markets comes first, but hey, they made the video.

Spicy Whole Wheat Spaghetti
LINK TO... Spicy Whole Wheat Spaghetti video. (5:48)
Chef and cookbook author Mike Chiarello makes a nice pasta dish with rich, deep flavors. But please DO NOT use a mandoline without the safety guard, as Mike is doing here. It's really, really dangerous (this is the sad voice of experience begging you).

Four Cheese Baked Penne
LINK TO... Four Cheese Baked Penne recipe. (2:48)
Ellie Krieger's back again, with a family-friendly variation on macaroni and cheese. We've included several of Ellie's dishes on this page because her recipes are consistently easy, delicious and healthy.

Buckwheat Ham and Cheese Crêpes
LINK TO... Buckwheat Crêpes video. (4:47)
It's traditional in Normandy and Brittany to use buckwheat for crêpes or "galettes" as the large, thin pancakes are often called in these areas. Believe Chef Tse when she advises letting crêpe batter rest for a while before cooking - you'll get better results, especially with whole grains. (The resting helps the gluten develop so everything holds together when you flip it, and when you roll or fold it around your filling.) You might also try using whole wheat pastry flour in place of the unbleached flour part once you get the hang of cooking the crêpes. Rather than warm the filling, you can fill all your crêpes then put them in a slow oven to melt the cheese just before serving.

Salads and Sides

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad
LINK TO... Whole Wheat Pasta Salad video. (3:47)
Whole wheat pasta has come of age, with new brands that are tender and tasty. In this video, Whole Grains Council culinary advisor Ellie Krieger uses it to make a cool summer salad.

Quinoa Salad
LINK TO... Quinoa Salad video. (1:48)
Chef Oren makes a quinoa salad that's similar to tabbouleh. You can generally substitute any whole grain for another. So if you have a favorite recipe for rice, for instance, try it with another grain for variety.

Brown Rice Pilaf
LINK TO... Brown Rice Pilaf video. (4:54)
Love brown rice, but don't have enough time to cook it at dinnertime? Mark Bittman, the NY Times "Minimalist" shows you a shortcut. When you think he's done, keep listening for some great background information on brown rice.  Bittman doesn't get specific about amounts in this pilaf recipe, so we've added some typical amounts to give you a rough idea. But think about it: his anything-goes approach reminds us that (with the exception of baking) measuring really doesn't matter that much in cooking.

Exotic Tabbouleh Salad
LINK TO...  Tabbouleh video. (3:42)
Ellie Krieger makes tabbouleh with bulgur. Bulgur is a form of wheat that's been steamed, dried, and cracked into pieces. Because it's been pre-cooked before you buy it, your time to cook it is minimal - with most bulgur, you can just pour boiling water over it, and let it sit (like couscous) while you chop your vegetables. (Coarse bulgur - with its bigger chunks - may require 10 minutes or so of active simmering.)

Barley Risotto
LINK TO... Barley Risotto video. (4:26)
Kate Sherwood from CSPI and Nutrition Action Newsletter shows how to make a creamy tomato-barley risotto that turns to vegetables for its full and satisfying flavor. The creaminess comes from the starches released by the barley. Kate doesn't clearly specify how long this takes to cook, but hulled barley generally takes about an hour, from start to finish.

Scallion Pancakes
LINK TO... Scallion Wheat Pancakes, with Katy
Ever have scallion pancakes at your favorite Chinese restaurant, and wish you could make them at home? Katy, a twenty-something attorney in New York City, shows us how, using whole wheat flour. The recipe is simple and looks delicious – but we wish we could see things cooking on the stove a bit more clearly.

Brown Rice Made Easy
LINK TO... Perfect Brown Rice, with the Southern Vegan (6:00)
Actually, brown rice never was hard to cook. But some of you out there may not know that, and this video will give you the confidence to enjoy the full, nutty taste of brown rice more often. This primer on brown rice from The Southern Vegan (including some good info on the benefits of brown rice) may help! See also Mark Bittman's video above.

Breads

Whole Grain Sourdough Bread
LINK TO... Whole Grain Sourdough Bread Part 1, with Eric Rusch (7:51)
LINK TO... Whole Grain Sourdough Bread Part 2, with Eric Rusch (6:10)
One of our favorite whole grain videos. Breadtopia's Eric Rusch takes us step by step through making an almost-no-knead boule that is modeled after Paris' famous Poilâne loaf.

Easy Whole Grain Flatbread
LINK TO... Flatbread video. (4:49)
Mark Bittman shows how you can make an easy flatbread with just four ingredients. He doesn't give details on the curried cauliflower, but who cares? The point is you can put some interesting flavored veggies (doesn't even have to be cauliflower) in the bread, to get an exotic south Asian flavor.

Whole Grain Bread
LINK TO... Whole Wheat Bread, with Eric Rusch (11:08)
Another wonderful Breadtopia video, this time of a classic whole wheat recipe from the King Arthur Flour cookbook.

Whole Wheat Brown Bread
LINK TO... How to make Whole Wheat Brown Bread (4:40)
This seems to be a Canadian recipe (measurements in metric, gas marks on the stove) but it's so clear and simple we wanted to include it. This whole wheat bread rises overnight in your fridge.

Whole Grain Desserts and Treats

Pear Muffins
LINK TO... Pear Muffins with Kids video. (3:39)
Saturday's a good day to enjoy a baking project. Watch this "Whole Foods Kids Can Cook" video with your kids first, and they'll be inspired to see Ana, Felix and Ingrid doing most of the project themselves. (We especially like little Ana's reindeer antlers.)

Banana Bread
LINK TO... Banana Bread video. (6:58)
This recipe comes from the wonderful King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking cookbook and the bread experts at Breadtopia - two great resources for whole grain bakers. Hunt around the Breadtopia website and check out their whole grain sourdough, too.  Want to cut the fat? Experiment with substituting 2 ounces of applesauce for half the butter.

Chocolate Mocha Cake
LINK TO... Chocolate Mocha Cake video. (6:34)
The best foods in life are simultaneously healthy and delicious. This Chocolate Mocha Cake from Ellie Krieger is a great choice for the next special occasion in your life. 

Carrot Cupcakes
LINK TO... Carrot Cupcakes video. (5:26)
Eating healthy doesn't mean you can't ever enjoy dessert - just look for choices that include whole grains (and other good things). Ellie Krieger's carrot cupcakes make sure that your dessert offers more than empty calories, with a luscious carrot cake - and reasonable portion sizes due to the cupcake form. Another great project to do with the kids, on the weekend.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
LINK TO... Oatmeal Cookies video. (1:54)
Everyone's all-time favorite: oatmeal cookies. You can go 100% whole grain by using whole wheat pastry flour instead of the all purpose flour too. But either way, the scads of oats in this recipe make a good contribution to your need for whole grains - to say nothing of your need for a cookie every now and then.