• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

  • Home
  • About
  • Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other Mushrooms
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Huitlacoche
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Hedgehogs
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Honey Mushrooms
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Ramps and Onions
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
      • Spruce and Conifers
      • Pollen
      • Prickly Ash
      • Bergamot / Wild Oregano
      • Spicebush
      • Golpar / Cow Parsnip
      • Wild Carraway
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged Animals
      • Venison
      • Small Game
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal and Organ Meat Recipes
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • Field, Forest Feast (The Wild Harvest)
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts / Interviews
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

Kernza Salad with Butternuts and Hedgehog Mushrooms

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Kernza Salad Recipe with Preserved Mushrooms and Bergamot (6)Kernza, a crop being researched by the land institute in the University of Minnesota is a potentially groundbreaking game changing grain. Most grains, like wheat, corn and soy beans, need to be planted as an annual. Kernza is the opposite, a perennial grain that needs no planting, no tilling, and, because of that, actually replenishes topsoil. See more from The Land Institute here.

I was first introduced to it in the form of flour that I’m lucky enough to be able to purchase occasionally from Bakersfield, and I’ve been addicted to keeping some around ever since I heard about it. Kernza flour is difficult to work with for things like bread though, and, although it contains some gluten, it isn’t nearly as much as some heirloom wheats like Turkish red and Sonoran white carried by Sunrise Flour Mill, which also have lower gluten contents than, say, conventional all purpose flour.

This means that baking the with flour, if you want something like bread with a decent airy crumb, needs to be in proportions of about 50% with a traditional, higher protein flour. 

The other thing Kernza adds to the mix is a certain texture the flour gives to a dough, it’s a sort of fudgy, almost custardy feel that I think really shines in quick breads, things like pancakes, waffles, or the flatbreads I made for a few hundred people at the MWHF in 2019.

But, just like other grains, Kernza can also be cooked just like you would whole wheat berries, spelt, or wild rice—as a loose grain for salads, soups, or quick sautés and stir frys. While I like the fudgy texture kernza flour gives to baked goods, right now I’ve been partial to using it in salads or pilafs to show off the unique shape and texture, especially if I’m serving it to first timers.

It’s smaller and more thin than spelt or wheat berries, and, as a definite bonus, is also more tender than either of the other two. For a simple example of how it could be used, I made a little kernza salad to take with me on my recent pilgrimage to harvest praire turnips in South Dakota with members of the Standing Rock Lakota tribe.

It’s really simple, you cook the kernza in some stock with aromatics, then toss with mushrooms, herbs and toasted nuts. I used hedgehog mushrooms and butternuts (white walnuts), but you could use whatever combo of nuts, seeds and shrooms you like. It’s a filling, portable meal—just the kind of thing I like to keep in a backpack to eat in the middle of the field for lunch, or in this case, the middle of the prairie digging timpsila/prairie turnips.

Kernza Salad Recipe with Preserved Mushrooms and Bergamot (6)

Kernza salad with preserved hedgehog mushrooms and bergamot
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Kernza Salad with Butternuts and Hedgehog Mushrooms

A salad of chewy kernza berries with butternuts, hedgehog mushrooms and wild herbs
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time30 mins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Kernza
Servings: 4

Ingredients

Kernza

  • 1 cup whole kernza berries
  • 2 cups water
  • Small chunk each of carrot onion, celery
  • Small handful crumbled dried mushrooms, or generous pinch mushroom powder

Salad

  • ¼ cup butternuts black walnuts or other nuts, lightly toasted
  • 1 scant cup gently sautéed hedgehog or other mushrooms or use mushroom conserve
  • 6 oz small diced carrot, onion, and celery
  • 4-5 green onions, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh bergamot Monarda fistulosa or other fresh herbs you like
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
  • Good tasting oil such as sunflower, hickory nut, or olive
  • Dash of apple cider vinegar

Instructions

  • Lightly toast the kernza in a skillet for a few minutes until you can just smell it. Bring the kernza and water to a simmer with the remaining kernza ingredients, turn the heat to low, cover, and cook until the kernza is just tender and most of the water is absorbed. Discard the vegetables.
  • Meanwhile, sweat the diced vegetables in a good glug of oil, slowly, until they start to brown along the edges, about 20 minutes.
  • Toss the vegetables with the still hot kernza, mushrooms, herbs, and green onions double check the seasoning, then adjust with salt, pepper, vinegar and oil.
  • If you use pickled mushrooms, you may want to rinse them depending on how much vinegar is in your recipe. My conserve can be added straight to the grain salad.

More 

The Forager’s Guide to Hedgehog Mushrooms 

Related

Previous Post: « Wild Rice Crackers
Next Post: Tinpsila Harvest (Thíŋpsiŋla) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lila Salls

    December 30, 2021 at 9:21 pm

    5 stars
    I tried this and brought it to a potluck. I thought the idea of lightly “toasting” the grain in the pan at the beginning was great. I didn’t have all the ingredients, so I had to substitute some others, but people at the potluck liked it. I also enjoyed some of the instructions like use a “good glug” I understand that.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      December 31, 2021 at 6:47 am

      Glad it worked for you Lila. Yes, this salad, as it contains a number of pretty obscure ingredients, is just an idea, a template to use as a guide with whatever you have. Thanks for cooking with Kernza. Where did you get yours?

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

2022 James Beard Nominee

beard award

Subscribe (It’s free)

ORDER THE BOOK

UPDATED OPTIONS FOR CA / EU / US the forager chefs book of flora by Chef Alan Bergo

Forager Chef

Forager Chef

Footer

Instagram

foragerchef

FORAGER | CHEF®
🍄🌱🍖
Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
2022 James Beard Nominee
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
Oh the things I get in the mail. This is my kind Oh the things I get in the mail. 

This is my kind of tip though: a handmade buckskin bag with a note and a handful of bleached snapping turtle claws. 😁😂 

Sent in by Leslie, a reader. 

Smells like woodsmoke and the cat quickly claimed it as her new bed. 

#buckskin #mailsurprise #turtleclaws #thisimylife #cathouse
Bluebell season. Destined for a Ligurian ravioli Bluebell season. 

Destined for a Ligurian ravioli as a replacement for the traditional borage greens. 

#mertensiavirginica #virginiabluebells #spring #foraging
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure

 I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchases help keep this website free and help with the many costs involved with this site as it has continued to grow over the years. 

Copyright © 2022 ·