Perhaps you're like me and label yourself a foodie!  Admittedly I am just about 3 months vegan and that has caused me to abstain from certain foods I normally had more than my fill of.  However, it's also opened up my consciousness to many ingredients I hadn't discovered and what's more, many of the ways in which to prepare them.  The 'Food as a Celebration' experience I've been happily traipsing through has depths and layers that evoke memories of foods once had and foods I've heard of but had perviously been skeptically willing to try.  Eating vegan hasn't made it more unbearable, it's just made the challenge more anticipatory.  

It's with this wide-eyed anticipation that I always look with curiosity towards foods that aim to do what many vegan foods do which is to supplement ingredients for non-animal-based ones.  Then occasionally you just want to know what's out there so you can try something new to always keep your culinary range nice and broad.  This is precisely why I am glad that Pereg, one of my favorite brands for quinoa, has introduced me to freekeh.

      

Freekeh is a young, green wheat that is roasted over an open flame.  This gives the grain a delicate, smoky flavor and buoyant texture similar to bulgur.  However, don't hear 'wheat' then take pause.  Freekeh is a great source of calcium and is higher in fiber than quinoa and lower in fat than both quinoa and brown rice.  Pereg offers up a packaged Freekeh with Vegetables that can be stovetop ready in about 25 minutes.  This will definitely become a welcomed addition to my culinary closet  as subtleties within texture and flavor are huge with a vegan or vegetarian diet.  I paired my first freekeh tasting with a fresh homemade black bean chili topped with fresh pickled red onion, vibrant long green pepper, red onion & lime salsa and green plantains (tostones) fried up in grapeseed oil.  The freekeh was a delicious base and had a great texture that paired quite nicely with its other fresh culinary plate-mates.

Pereg's Freekeh With Vegetables is available now at your better grocery stores and supermarkets like Fairway and Wholefoods.  It will be available soon at their website Pereg-Gourmet.com