Wheatgrass Supposedly Gluten Free!

Free Wheatgrass!

As one of two Boulder locals taking my class this weekend, I was the lucky one to get to take home the leftover wheatgrass because the other Boulder local left early. So, two free trays of wheatgrass means energizing mornings for Brian and I.

Wheatgrass has to be juiced in a specific juicer, because the grass is too thin to work in a common juicer. But, hey, I don't have any type of juicer, so here is a recipe for wheatgrass juice blender style.
Citrus 'n Wheatgrass Morning Wake-up Call
Ingredients
1/2 tray of wheat grass that is between 3-4 inches tall, trim about 1/2"-1" from the base (be sure not to get ANY of the berries at the base if you are gluten intolerant!)
3-4 clementines peeled and separated
1 large lemon or 2 small lemons
A little bit of grated ginger
3-4 cups of kombucha, coconut water, or regular water
Dash of handcrafted sea salt for minerals
(if you want a spicy breakfast drink add a clove of garlic and dash or two of cayenne)

Blend ingredients on high. Strain juice through a fine mesh bag or fine strainer into two glasses. You do not want to drink/eat the pulp. It is gross. 


You may be asking yourself, wouldn't "wheat"grass have gluten in it? Well, the online consensus is that there is no gluten in the grass itself. The gluten is contained in the wheatberry, which is the seedling thingy at the base.

I would love to do a controlled trial to test this, however, I have been experiencing a gluten reaction already to the millet I prepared last week. Millet is a gluten free grain, but my cheapness got the best of me when I opted to buy it from the bulk bins, which are a cross contamination danger zone. It was a lovely meal though:

The culprit, millet, and it's roasted friends

Since I was too sick and busy to share this recipe at the time I will give you a brief run down.
Roasted Winter Veggies and Cinnamon Millet
Ingredients:
2 carrots
1 yam/sweet potato
1 fennel bulb
1/2 onion
1 cup millet

Wash and chop the veggies and toss in a glass baking dish with a little sea salt, pepper and olive oil. Roast for about 35 minutes at around 375 degrees. Roasting really brings out the sugars of these intensely flavorful veggies, so you really don't have to do much to 'em. The millet gets boiled and then simmered in water at a 3:1 water to millet ratio until cooked through like rice or quinoa. Then I mixed in cinnamon to match the cozy, sweet flavors of the roasted veggies. It was good comfort food at first, and then resulted in much discomfort for the past week : /

On the bright side, this has been the least severe gluten reaction I can remember having. This was sure to be a direct result of all the high enzyme, probiotic, living foods from the Healing Diets class. I guess you could say I got some healing out of it myself!

Share this post