Wheat berries substitutes

The most natural swap, since farro is an ancient wheat and behaves like a slightly more refined version of the same thing. Pearled farro cooks in twenty-five to thirty minutes instead of the forty-five to sixty wheat berries need, which is often reason enough to choose it. The chew is a touch softer and less springy, and the flavor is a little nuttier and rounder.

Best for

grain bowls, grain salads, soups, risotto-style dishes, meal prep

Check whether your farro is whole, semi-pearled or pearled, since cook times run from forty minutes down to twenty. Pearled farro releases more starch than wheat berries, so rinse it after draining if it is going into a vinaigrette-dressed salad.

Effectively the same ingredient from a different wheat species, and the closest match on this list. Whole spelt kernels cook in about fifty minutes, hold the same firm, distinctly poppy bite, and taste marginally sweeter and nuttier than hard red wheat berries. If a recipe was developed for wheat berries, spelt berries will produce a nearly identical dish.

Best for

grain salads, grain bowls, soups, pilafs, anywhere wheat berries are called for

Soaking overnight cuts the cook time to about thirty-five minutes and improves the texture. Spelt contains gluten, so it is not an option for coeliac cooking despite occasional claims to the contrary.

Another wheat species, with notably larger kernels, roughly twice the size of common wheat. That size gives the best chew of anything here, big and juicy and satisfyingly firm, and the flavor is distinctly buttery and sweet. The only downside is that the grains are so large they read as a different ingredient visually in a delicate salad.

Best for

grain bowls, hearty salads, soups, grain sides

Soak overnight, then simmer for forty-five to sixty minutes. It absorbs more water than smaller grains, so use plenty and drain rather than measuring liquid exactly.

Whole rye kernels, cooked the same way and in about the same time as wheat berries, around fifty minutes. Texture is even chewier and slightly denser, which many people prefer in a cold salad. Flavor is the real change: rye is noticeably earthier, darker and faintly sour, in the same family as rye bread, which is excellent with beets, cabbage, dill and mustard dressings and slightly odd with delicate summer vegetables.

Best for

cold grain salads, hearty winter bowls, soups with root vegetables

Rye leaches a fair amount of starch, so the cooking water turns thick and cloudy. Cook it like pasta in abundant water and rinse it briefly after draining.

The most available and cheapest substitute, and the compromise is worth knowing about. Barley cooks faster, thirty to thirty-five minutes, and turns plump and tender rather than firm and poppy, and it sheds a lot of soluble starch. In a soup that starch is an asset, thickening the broth into something silky. In a dressed salad it makes the dressing cloudy and slightly gluey, and the grains soften more over a few days in the fridge than wheat berries do.

Best for

soups and stews, hearty warm grain salads, pilafs

For salads, boil it in plenty of salted water like pasta, drain and rinse under cool water to wash off the surface starch, then dress it. Hulled barley, if you can find it, is much closer to wheat berries than pearl barley, with a firmer chew and a fifty-minute cook.

Young green wheat, roasted while still moist, so it is genuinely the same grain with a completely different flavor profile: smoky, grassy and savory. Whole freekeh keeps a firm chew close to wheat berries and cooks much faster, in about twenty to twenty-five minutes. Use it when the smokiness suits the dish, because it is not a background flavor.

Best for

warm grain salads, pilafs, stuffings, bowls with roasted vegetables and yoghurt

Rinse it thoroughly before cooking to remove ash and chaff from the roasting. Buy whole rather than cracked freekeh for a wheat berry substitute, since cracked freekeh cooks in ten minutes and eats much softer.

If you need a gluten-free grain with genuinely comparable chew, whole sorghum is the honest answer, better than brown rice or quinoa for this purpose. The little round kernels cook in about fifty minutes and stay firm, round and poppy, holding up in a dressed salad for days. The flavor is mild and slightly sweet, a bit blander than wheat, which is easy to fix with a well-seasoned dressing.

Best for

gluten-free grain salads, grain bowls, soups

Cook it in plenty of salted water and drain. It never goes truly soft, which is the point, so do not keep simmering it waiting for it to soften like rice. Brown rice and quinoa are more available gluten-free options but neither gives the same firm pop.