Healthy Whole Grains Recipes and Cooking Tips

Featured Recipes

Cumin-Scented Wheat Berry-Lentil Soup

Freshly squeezed lemon juice adds a bright note to this toothsome and hearty winter soup, perfect for a weeknight supper with a hunk of crusty bread. It freezes beautifully—you can keep individual portions in the freezer for healthy weekday lunches. For homemade vegetable broth, see Roasted Vegetable Stock at eatingwell.com.

» Cumin-Scented Wheat Berry-Lentil Soup

Fresh Herb & Lemon Bulgur Pilaf

This pilaf, made with nutty bulgur, gets plenty of bright flavor from fresh dill, mint, parsley, ginger and lemon.

» Fresh Herb & Lemon Bulgur Pilaf

Savory Millet Cakes

In this recipe, millet is cooked to a polenta-like consistency with shredded vegetables, lemon zest and grated cheese, shaped into patties and browned in a skillet. The result is a unique pancake that's a little crunchy on the outside and creamy inside. Try them as a side dish with chicken or fish for dinner or over mixed greens for lunch.

» Savory Millet Cakes

Spring Chicken & Barley Soup

You might think of barley as an addition to hearty, wintery soups, such as mushroom-barley or beef-barley soup, but it also works well in lighter soups like this one with chicken, asparagus and peas.

» Spring Chicken & Barley Soup

Toasted Quinoa Salad with Scallops & Snow Peas

This scallop-studded quinoa salad gets an exciting texture from crunchy snow peas, red bell pepper and scallions. Feel free to substitute shrimp or thin slices of chicken for the scallops.

» Toasted Quinoa Salad with Scallops & Snow Peas

9 great grains to improve your health deliciously at every meal.

Whole grains provide a healthy boost of vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients and are also rich in carbohydrates, the body’s main fuel supply—no wonder we need to eat more grains. In fact, the 2005 USDA Dietary Guidelines recommend that adults consume around six ounces of grains daily, and that we make half those grains whole. Brown rice just recently joined the ranks of healthful whole grains recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Start your day with whole-grain muffins or yogurt topped with granola; try hearty salads with wheat berries or quinoa; swap out white rice or potatoes for sides of brown rice at dinner tonight.

More good news: you’ll feel fuller longer, since whole grains and fiber take longer to digest.