Cooking with Kernza 101
Introduction
For the final post in this series on Whole Grains 101, we are covering Kernza, the only perennial grain grown in North America.
What is Kernza?
Kernza is the registered trademark name for a type of perennial wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium) bred with a specific focus on human consumption.
Initial breeding was started by the Rodale Research Center several decades ago and it is now being continued by the Land Institute.
Kernza is considered a distant cousin of wheat.
While Kernza yields are about 3 times lower than wheat, the inputs are fewer and the plant can produce a significant grain harvest for up to 8 years.
After that time, the grain yields decrease but it can continue to be used as a forage crop for another 8 years.
What sets Kernza apart is its deep root system that can help to fight erosion and also will produce a harvest in times of drought.
Kernza Nutrition
Kernza’s nutritional profile is quite impressive.
For 100 grams of raw Kernza berries, there are approximately 19 grams of protein which is more than double the amount found in white wheat berries.
Kernza contains roughly double the amount of fiber as white wheat berries (18 grams vs 10 grams).
It does contain a little more fat than white wheat berries (2.9 grams vs 2.3 grams) as well as slightly more calories (368 vs 318).
Kernza contains 120 mg of calcium per 100 grams which makes it come in third after amaranth and teff in terms of grains and pseudograins with higher calcium content.
It is also high in potassium with 480 mg found in a 100 grams of raw Kernza.
Overall, Kernza is a nutritious whole grain option to consider in your rotation of grain.
Does Kernza Contain Gluten?
Because Kernza is in the wheat family, it does contain gluten.
However, the gluten it contains does not hold together as well as the gluten in wheat:
[…] Any glutenin present needs to be “high molecular weight glutenin.” […] Kernza’s glutenin is predominantly “low molecular weight glutenin,” so it does not perform with the rigor of glutenin present in a high-protein wheat
source: Baking with Kernza: An In Depth Analysis & Introduction
Therefore, Kernza flour on its own is typically considered a better option for baking cakes and cookies than baking bread.
Forms of Kernza
Kernza can most commonly be found as a whole berry or ground into flour.
Culinary Uses
Kernza has many culinary uses both sweet and savory as will be listed below.
Sprouted Kernza
Typically, when I try out a whole grain, I will test out all the different ways it can be used, including sprouting it.
Therefore, as usual, I tried to sprout Kernza berries by soaking the berries overnight in water and then rinsing twice a day for a week.
However, I didn’t have the greatest germination rate after one week as can be seen in image below.
This lines up with research done by the Perennial Pantry with dehulled Kernza which cites a 52% germination rate.
Hull on Kernza has germination rates of 93%.
Therefore, for home use, I wouldn’t suggest sprouting Kernza.
Kernza Malt
Typically, when I test out a whole grain, I also try to malt it.
Because of the low germination rate just discussed above, I did not try malting Kernza.
However, if you can get a hold of unhulled Kernza, you can try malting it.
The site kernza.org provides a whole research article on malting kernza which you can find through this link.
Boiled Kernza Berries
Kernza berries are delicious boiled as their mild nutty flavor is very pleasant.
I have found that Kernza berries release starch quite easily, in a manner similar to farro (aka farro medio aka emmer wheat) or medium grain rice.
Therefore, boiled Kernza berries will tend to be more glutinous.
And while the bran is more tender then wheat berries, it does benefit from a longer cooking time.
As a result, I find the boiled Kernza berries best used as a porridge or in a risotto style dish with at least a 3:1 ratio of water and long, slow cooking of up to an hour.
For optimal digestibility, you can presoak overnight a cup of Kernza in two cups of water with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
Alternatively, if you don’t have time to presoak the Kernza berries, you can also lightly dry toast them for a few minutes prior to boiling them.
Stovetop Boiled Kernza Porridge
- Combine 1 cup of presoaked Kernza berries with 2 cups of water ( 3 cups if unsoaked) and a pinch of salt.
- Bring to a boil.
- Lower heat, cover pot and allow to simmer for 40 minutes (up to an hour if unsoaked), stirring occasionally.
- Test for tenderness, cooking longer if needed.
Instant Pot Boiled Kernza Porridge
- Combine 1 cup of presoaked Kernza berries with 1.5 cups of water ( 2.5 cups if unsoaked) and a pinch of salt.
- Set to High Pressure 20 minutes (30 minutes if unsoaked)
- Allow to natural release for at least 10 minutes.
Notes:
- Unsoaked berries can be lightly toasted if desired to enhance nutty flavor.
- For a more pilaf like consistency, you can reduce the amount of liquid by a third.
Cracked Kernza
Because Kernza berries are so fine, it is actually quite challenging to crack them in a home stone mill.
You will have better luck pulsing the berries in a high speed blender: for one cup of Kernza berries, a couple of pulses should be sufficient (about 10 seconds total).
Cracked Kernza can replace whole Kernza when making porridge – the cooking time will be reduced by about half if using recipe in previous section.
Because it is higher in protein, cracked Kernza porridge is a great whole grain addition to smoothies ( more details on whole grains in smoothies can be found here ).
Kernza Flour
A popular way to use Kernza berries is ground up into flour and added in part or in whole to dough for sweet or savory applications.
Kernza flour tends to have rather large bran flakes relative to other grain flours as can be seen in image below of sifted Kernza flour.
That being said, the bran is quite soft and it easily blends in when used in pastry applications such as cookies, cakes, etc.
It is usually recommended to substitute whole Kernza flour for whole soft wheat berries in baked goods and possibly adding a little more liquid if needed.
Because of the type of gluten it contains, Kernza flour will typically not rise as well as hard wheat.
Most recipes I have seen will combine Kernza flour (30% is a upper limit) with bread flour when making sourdough or yeasted breads.
(For more info on milling your own grains, please see this guide.)
Where to Buy Kernza
Kernza is still very much a niche grain.
A search on Amazon will retrieve a few products that include Kernza as well as Kernza flour.
If you want to purchase Kernza berries, a Google search is your best option.
Currently, Perennial Pantry (not sponsored) and Breadtopia (not sponsored) are some of the few vendors making the grain available for retail sale.
Learn More about Kernza
To learn more about Kernza, perennial-pantry.com is a good resource which includes recipes for cooking and baking with Kernza.
There is also a cookbook by Beth Dooley titled The Perennial Kitchen which includes recipes using Kernza – just be aware it is not a plant-based book and you will have to make substittions in recipes if you are vegan.
Conclusion
This concludes the series on cooking with Whole Grains 101.
As usual, the next post will include a recipe that uses Kernza as the featured grain.
Over the past two years, we’ve covered all the grains and pseudograins that are easily available to a retail consumer in the United States.
It’s been a pleasure to discover grains that are either ancient, heirloom, pseudo as well as modern.
In all, we’ve covered 21 different grains and pseudo grain families.
After the next post, going forward, we will be doing deeper dives into using freshly milled whole grain flours as well as doing different experiments that hopefully will expand your whole grain horizon.
Wishing you, as always, a grainlicious experience!
All information in this post is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute nutritional, medical or health advice.
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