Freekeh Breakfast Porridge with Apricot and Orange
Freekeh is wheat harvested young and green, then set alight so the chaff burns off and the grain takes on a deep, smoky flavor, a technique from the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It usually turns up in savory pilafs, but that same smokiness plays beautifully against sweet dried fruit in a breakfast porridge, the way toasted grains do in the wheat and barley porridges eaten across the region. Apricots cooked in from the start carry the sweetness so no sugar is called for, and orange, both zest and juice, keeps it from turning heavy. Toast the grain before it goes in the pot and finish with almonds for crunch. It holds its chew where a rolled oat goes to mush, and a single pot feeds a few mornings from the fridge.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Freekeh, cracked
- 1/2 cup Dried apricots, chopped
- 1 whole Oranges, zest and juice
- 1 stick Ceylon cinnamon
- 1 cup Unsweetened almond milk
- 1/3 cup Almonds, toasted, chopped
Method
- Rinse the freekeh, then toast it in a dry pot over medium heat for 2 minutes until it smells nutty and smoky. Freekeh is young green wheat that has been roasted, and a quick dry toast wakes that smokiness back up before any liquid goes in.
- Add 2 1/2 cups water (600 ml), the chopped apricots, the cinnamon stick, and the strip of orange zest. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, cover, and cook 25 minutes until the grain is tender and chewy. Cooking the apricots in from the start lets them soften and bleed their sweetness through the whole pot, so no sugar is needed; the smoky grain and the sweet-tart fruit are the whole idea.
- Stir in the almond milk and the orange juice and cook uncovered another 5 minutes, stirring, until it loosens into a creamy porridge. Adding the milk and juice at the end keeps the orange bright and turns the starch the freekeh has released into something spoonable and soft.
- Pull out the cinnamon stick and the zest. Ceylon cinnamon simmered as a stick gives a gentle, floral warmth without the sharpness of a heap of ground cassia.
- Spoon into bowls and top with the toasted almonds and a little more orange zest. It keeps four days in the fridge and reheats with a splash of water or milk, which makes it a good pot to cook once and eat all week.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 260 calories, 8 g protein, 9 g fiber, 45 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
