Cold Weather Hot Cereal – Bengali Breakfast Grains
Raw foods have been touted for a variety of health benefits, including weight loss, increased energy, and better digestion. The raw food plan consists largely of uncooked and unprocessed plant foods, including fruits and vegetables, beans, sprouts, grains, nuts, seeds, and seaweed.
The biggest benefit of a raw food diet may also be its biggest drawback -- the impact of cooking on the nutrient value of food. Cooking these foods is thought to kill the enzymes in the food that help digest them. Cooking can also result in vitamin loss.
Vitamin loss in food is affected by:
- Exposure to air
- Exposure to light
- Exposure to heat
- Whether a vitamin is fat- or water-soluble, vitamin loss from cooking is more significant with water-soluble vitamins such as B and C, because prolonged heating breaks them down.
It is best to eat a combination of fresh, cooked, and raw foods to achieve the optimal amount of nutrients and vitamins they contain. Additionally, cooked food has important scientific benefits in addition to plain old comfort.
Heat applied during cooking can:
- Increase digestibility, flavor, and texture.
- Can make food safer (e.g., killing parasites or bacteria)
- Increase certain nutrients in terms of fat-soluble vitamins (D, E, A, and K) as well as fat-soluble plant chemicals (e.g., lycopene) become more concentrated with cooking; the vegetable loses water content, thereby decreasing dilution of the nutrients.
Most importantly, warm food warms your body. What better way to start a cold February day than with a delicious, warm, nurturing breakfast? Enjoy!
Bengali Breakfast Grains
A whisper of exotic spices results in complex flavors and a stunningly simple breakfast treat.
Yield: 3 cups; 6 (½-cup) servings
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup coarse-grind bulgur
1½ teaspoons fennel seeds
2 cups low-fat milk, soymilk, or nut milk plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
½ cup Melissa’s dried blueberries (about 3 ounces) or other dried or fresh berries
Instructions
Heat oil in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat.
Add bulgur and fennel seeds and cook, stirring frequently, until bulgur is light golden brown, about 5 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Carefully stir in milk and spices. Return to heat and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until most, but not all, of the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.
Stir in berries. Spoon into serving dishes. Serve hot
Bulgur Factoid: Bulgur is made by boiling whole wheat berries, which are then roasted and ground to the desired texture. Because it is precooked, bulgur is relatively quick to prepare.
