Ebly - How to cook Instant French Wheat Berries

Here is how we cook ebly, instant wheat berries, in France. Cooked wheat berries make for a lovely side dish that you can serve up instead of rice.

I explain further below all the details about ebly wheatberries and what to look out for.

Jump to:

• 🌾 What are Wheat Berries?
• 📕 What is Ebly?
• 🧂 What does Ebly taste like?
• 🔃 How to substitute Ebly?
• 🔪 How to cook Ebly?
• 💡 Tips
• 🍴 Serving Ideas
• 🍱 Storing
• 💭 FAQs
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🌾 What are Wheat Berries?

Wheat Berries are whole wheat kernels without the hull and husk.

They come in yellow or red and in hard or soft form.

Wheat berries all over the world are usually ground to a flour or left to sprout to make wheatgrass juice.

Yet, there are wheat berries that need no soaking and that are cooked through after 10 minutes. These are called Ebly.

📕 What is Ebly?

Ebly, also known as French Blé, are instant wheat berries which are served as a side dish. They are also described as gourmet wheat.

Ebly is the brand that popularized instant wheat berries in Europe, so we ended up just calling this grain Ebly in Europe.

They only take about 10 to 15 minutes to cook through to turn out soft and fluffy.

This is because ebly wheat berries are pre-cooked durum wheat berries and that way they take only a short time to cook through at home.

Wheat berries are incredibly common in Europe, and especially in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

We use this healthier grain as an alternative to rice or pasta served as a side dish with seafood and meat meals.

In the US and other places, you mainly get hard wheat berries and soft berries. These are not Ebly!

Today, you can get the Ebly, which we get in Europe, in the US too. They are simply sold as Ebly Pure Durum Wheat.

Ebly is French, so french specialty stores will always have ebly in stock.

🧂 What does Ebly taste like?

Wheat berries taste a bit nutty, kind of like cous cous (which is rolled durum).

You can compare them a bit to risotto rice, minus the rice-like flavor and Bulgur wheat.

Wheat berries are actually almost tasteless, but they take in other flavors beautifully.

They compliment other main course meals really well.

🔃 How to substitute Ebly?

If you can't get ebly, you can always get soft wheat berries, which are incidentally, also organic.

However, keep in mind that soft wheat berries take much longer to cook because they have not been pre-cooked.

That means soft wheat berries take about 60–90 mins to cook through to get soft.

Ebly on the other hand, only takes 10 minutes to get cooked.

To cook soft wheat berries fast, you can try soaking them overnight as this might reduce the cooking time or cook them in your pressure cooker.

🔪 How to cook Ebly?

Cooking Ebly wheat berries is easy.

Remember, pre-cooked ebly wheat berry takes about 10–15 mins to cook through, and non-Ebly regular soft wheat berry takes around 60–90 mins to cook through. Keep that in mind to avoid confusion.

Here are brief instructions for cooking Ebly wheat berries. The full recipe with US and metric measurements, and video, can be found further below in the recipe card.

Step 1

Pour wheat berries into a pot. Cover with water and season with salt.

Stir everything and keep over a medium heat setting.

Step 2

Allow the wheat berries to cook gradually uncovered over a medium heat, stirring occasionally.

The wheat berries will get more fluffy and will expand completely once they are done cooking through. This takes about 10 to 15 minutes in total.

Step 3

Taste a grain to see if it is cooked through.

It's done when it's soft and not hard.

Strain the water from the wheat berries and serve up.

💡 Tips

• You don't have to soak Ebly, they cook instantly.
• Add salt to the water so that your ebly wheat berries gain on flavor.
• Stir occasionally to make sure the grains don't stick to the bottom of the pot.
• You can add a dollop of butter at the end of the cooking process, after straining.
• Another idea is to season further with dried or fresh herbs, such as oregano, dill, and basil, or you can add some cayenne pepper to make it spicy.

🍴 Serving Ideas

Serve the wheat berries as a side dish with seafood, meat and other main courses.

We usually enjoy our cooked wheat berries as a side dish without seasonings, all-natural.

I love ebly with baked salmon, such as parchment cooked salmon, and other saucy meat dishes such as Jägerschnitzel.

People in France use cooked ebly to make salads and soups too.

A cold salad variation could be the North African Tabbouleh, which is typically made with couscous or bulgur in France.

If you have leftover wheat berries, you can use it to make a soup by using clear broth and using carrots and leeks.

Or check out some recipe ideas below.

• Wheat berry Salad by anediblemosaic.com
• Armenian Yogurt wheatberry Soup by curiouscuisiniere.com

🍱 Storing

Store leftover cooked Ebly in a rectangular glass container (IKEA style glass containers). They are good for at least 5 days in your fridge cooled.

Gradually warm up again in the oven at 280 Fahrenheit (ca. 140 degree Celsius) for about 15 minutes or reheat in the microwave in the same glass container (just without the lid).

I don't recommend freezing cooked ebly because they will turn out soggy. They cook instantly, so cooking them within a few minutes is a better option.

💭 FAQs

📖 Recipe