Main Dishes

At our house, weekends are just not complete without a stack of homemade pancakes.  Normally, I use whole white wheat flour, but this time I substituted half of the flour for buckwheat flour and fell in love!  It's a perfect balance between delicate and hearty. 

Barley goes Italian with these bell peppers stuffed with ground turkey (or beef), barley and your favorite spaghetti sauce.

To speed this recipe on its way to your table, the farro and the stew can be prepared up to three days ahead. Purchase the muscles the day they're to be cooked and simply reheat the stew before adding the mussels and farro in Step 4.

Mac & Cheese is a classic, an old favorite prepared in different ways in many European countries for centuries.  It's pretty simple to make and when you use whole grain einkorn pasta, you'll get extra protein, iron, B Vitamins, fiber, trace minerals, lutein and more. The nice, nutty whole grain flavor is perfect with the creamy sauce and it really feels satisfying. Now that’s comforting!

These delicious breakfast tartlets feature a creative "pie crust" made of brown rice, with a piquant, custardy filling.

The savory combination of buckwheat and cottage cheese shows up in many traditional Russian cookbooks, and creates the kind of dense, comforting pudding that we yearn for when there’s frost on the windows. Serve the casserole as an accompaniment to brisket, pot roast or short ribs. Vegetarians will enjoy it as an entree.

Real maple syrup and dried cranberries bring the tastes of a traditional American Thanksgiving to the table, any time of the year.

Get your day off to a delicious start with some corn pancakes. They're even gluten free!

This recipe has complex flavors – but is easier than it looks at first glance. Cook the fennel first (this can be done a day ahead), then the ribs and finaly the risotto-style whole grains.

A perfect Sunday Brunch dish, or make smaller for a passed hors-d'oeuvre.

Sprouted Sweet Brown Rice perfectly complements this easy stir fry. Coconut oil adds extra flavor depth, but you can substitute any other neutral vegetable oil.

Coconut oil is thought to have some interesting antimicrobial properties, plus, as a medium-chain fatty acid, it's digested without putting strain on the gall bladder. Or, you can ignore the health benefits – just enjoy the delicious coconut taste!

A slight sweet glaze from the marmalade balances nicely with the curried chicken on a bed of barley with colored pepper "confetti."

These waffles are delicious with or without a topping. There's enough maple syrup in the batter that I never feel a need to pour more on top.

If you're a fan of broccoli rabe, this combination will appeal to you for a casual, lusty, supper. Kamut, with its mild, buttery taste makes a good foil for the intense flavors of sausage and broccoli rabe.

Rye berries have a nice, peppery flavor that complements the lamb. Vegetarians can use seitan in place of lamb and a vegetable stock, and cook just until the rye is tender.

Carbonara is traditionally made by tossing the pasta in bacon grease and heavy cream. By making this dish with turkey bacon, fat-free yogurt, and half-and-half, you still get those great carbonara flavors—my husband’s favorite—without tons of saturated fat.

Here’s a special-occasion dish that is both delicious and pretty to look at — perfect for Sunday dinner or guests. Serve this with steamed baby carrots seasoned with a dash of cumin to complement the flavors of the chicken.

Yams and collards combine with teff, herbs, and spices, creating a beautiful mosaic pattern in this robust grain loaf. Serve as a side dish or as a vegetarian main dish.

Known for its mild flavor and ability to adapt in any recipe, tilapia is the perfect fish to combine with roasted red peppers, chipotle salsa, and Parmesan cheese.

Make good use of those garden-fresh tomatoes with this simple and very satisfying meal.

The rye berries are chewy and deeply nutty, the cabbage sweet, and the mustard perfectly pungent. Using a high-quality Dijon mustard is important; each grain becomes bathed an unctuous, deeply savory sauce. Great as a vegetarian, one-dish lunch or dinner, and as a side to roast pork.

Edamame are fresh soy beans. They add a great oriental touch to this delicious rice bowl.

When I was growing up, the only whole grain my mother made was kasha, and she made it so well that I still consult her. Here’s a gluten-free variation of her kasha varnishkes, made with golden quinoa-corn elbows. Corn pasta provides great eye appeal, but you can use any type of gluten-free shaped pasta.

This unusual cracker-like, protein-rich crust offers oats’ pleasing sweetness and amaranth’s hint of corn.

Oats add great flavor, texture, and a little nutritional boost to almost any baked good.  I love their flavor, but in this dish, the oats fade into the background behind the ethereal texture of perfectly plump, tender pancakes. The Greek yogurt works like buttermilk or sour cream, giving these pancakes a dependable rise that makes them our classic weekend pancakes.

Adding orange zest and raisins to salmon gives the finished dish its signature flavor - and the use of foil when broiling virtually eliminates clean-up!

Chili: a football season favorite!  This recipe trades the typical addition of beef with fabulous smoky-flavored freekeh for a filling vegetarian one pot dish.

Pizza just doesn't get any easier than this. Rye crispbread makes this perfect with a salad on hot summer nights.

This oatmeal bake is a must - keep the recipe on hand for chilly winter weekends. It's very easy to prepare the night before, just keep the dry and wet ingredients separate until ready to bake. You can use a variety of fruits, but the blueberry and peach is sure to please.

Although it might sound strange at first, adding bulgur to your hamburgers guarantees a unique texture and taste. Try this recipe with ground turkey or chicken, or try the Bulgur Meat Loaf variation included in the directions!

Spelt is an ancient, unhybridized form of wheat. I have found that whole grain spelt flour functions very much like all purpose flour but offers you the bonus of the fiber-rich bran and nutritious germ. Refrigerate leftovers for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Don't be fooled by the name of this dish - it may read "salad" but it's a full meal! Combining soft and chewy whole white weat with cockles, mussels, scallops, and tender fish like salmon and sea bass, this is a perfect seafood plate when you want a little of everything and simply can't choose.

I love the unusual combination of flavors in this one-dish meal. It's easy enough to make for a weeknight dinner and particularly colorful if made with red quinoa.