Healthy Whole-Grains Recipes and Cooking Tips

Featured Recipes

Brown Rice & Tofu Maki

Maki is the Japanese name for the “sushi rolls” favored by many. Short-grain rice is full of amylopectin, a sticky starch, which gives it its characteristic chewiness.

» Brown Rice & Tofu Maki

Sugar Snap Pea & Barley Salad

You get two sides in one with this dish—whole-grain barley along with crisp matchsticks of vitamin- and fiber-rich snap peas. Serve with roasted or grilled salmon or chicken.

» Sugar Snap Pea & Barley Salad

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

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

Multi-Grain Mushroom Pilaf

Nutty-tasting grains, such as wild rice, barley and wheat berries, make this simple side-dish pilaf so much more than the sum of its parts. Since the wild rice cooks faster than wheat berries and hulled barley, presoak the longer-cooking grains to make the cooking times compatible. If you would like to add fresh mushrooms, quickly sauté them and stir them into the cooked pilaf. Or try this flavor variation: Omit dill and substitute 1 teaspoon lemon zest for lemon juice. Stir in 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese just before serving.

» Multi-Grain Mushroom Pilaf

Great whole-grain recipes 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. And research shows that filling up on high-fiber foods may help you to prevent weight gain—or even encourage weight loss. Try one of our barley recipes, quinoa recipes, brown rice recipes or bulgur recipes for your next meal!