wheat berries

[anasv]

I'm doing more cooking from scratch, and I'd like to make wheatberry salads.

The recipes on the web all start with something like, simmer wheatberries for 45 minutes. I don't want to hang around in the kitchen for 45 minutes, and if I wander off to do something else, I'm likely to forget. My brain is even capable of ignoring a timer going off. Not to mention the concern of the pot boiling over if I don't have the heat set right and I'm not there watching it.

Is it possible to cook these in the microwave? I found one set of directions, but they say the time is "a few minutes," which sounds suspicious compared to 45 minutes.

Thanks.

[Major Nikon]

1. I make them in a crock pot

I just turn them on in the morning and they are ready by dinner time, or you can do them overnight.

[laundry_queen]

2. Do you have a rice cooker?

That might work. Or as mentioned, a crockpot.

When I make wheat berries I always cook them super long (after soaking overnight and using the soak water too cook them), but I don't make a salad with them...I make them for a traditional Ukrainian dish so they need to be very soft and exploded, basically, LOL. I cook them for so long, at such a low heat, that it's okay if I forget them for a couple of hours.

I'm sure you could try to cook them in a microwave...I'm not sure what the timing or the water ratio would be for it though.

[Warpy]

3. 45 minutes at a simmer seems a suspiciously short cooking time

even at sea level. I've only ever done them in a pressure cooker, otherwise they just never seem to get properly done.

A few minutes in a microwave isn't going to cut it.

My own suggestions are buy yourself a pressure cooker or buy yourself a good timer with a loud alarm. I use the one built into my microwave oven, it's piercing enough to come through rude music streaming on web radio.