Freekeh (sometimes spelled frikeh) or farik ( /

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''farīkah''; pronounced ''free-kah'' /ˈfɹiːkə/) is a

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

food made from green

durum wheat Durum wheat (), also called pasta wheat or macaroni wheat (''Triticum durum'' or ''Triticum turgidum'' subsp. ''durum''), is a tetraploid species of wheat. It is the second most cultivated species of wheat after common wheat, although it repres ...

(''Triticum turgidum'' var. ''durum'') that is roasted and rubbed to create its flavour. It is an ancient dish derived from Levantine and

North African North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

cuisines, remaining popular in many countries of the eastern Mediterranean Basin, where durum wheat originated. The wheat is harvested while the grains are green and the seeds are still soft; it is then piled and sun-dried. The piles are carefully set on fire such that only the straw and chaff burn. Under these conditions, the high moisture content of the seeds prevents them from burning. The roasted wheat is then threshed and sun-dried to achieve a uniform flavour, texture, and colour. This threshing or rubbing process of the grains gives this food its name, ''farīk'' or "rubbed". Finally, the seeds are cracked into smaller pieces that resemble green

bulgur Bulgur (; ; ; ), or Borghol (), is a cracked wheat foodstuff found in Egyptian cuisine, South Asian cuisine and West Asian cuisine. Characteristics Bulgur is distinct from cracked wheat, which is crushed wheat grain that, unlike bulgur, has ...

.“Freekeh - Farik - Green Wheat”
''Food History'', Clifford A. Wright.

History

Freekeh is mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' '' (, scorched or roasted) or ''carmel'' (), indicating it was used in ancient Israelite cuisine. For instance, in the Book of Kings II, it is said that

Elisha Elisha was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a Jewish prophet and a wonder-worker. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, Ełishe (Yeghishe/Elisha) via Armenian or Alyasa via Arabic, a ...

miraculously fed about a hundred people with some barley bread and ''carmel''. The Syriac version of the Bible translates the term into ''froka'', a cognate of the Arabic ''freekeh''.Bayram, M. (2008). An analysis of scorched immature wheat: FREKEH. ''Cereal foods world'', ''53''(3), 134. Freekeh is also mentioned in an early thirteenth-century

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

cookbook as ''farīkiyya''. In that recipe, meat is fried in oil and braised with water, salt, and cinnamon bark. Then, dried

coriander Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual plant, annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the ...

is stirred in with young wheat ("freekeh") and is cooked. Finally, the meal is served with

cumin Cumin (, ; ; ''Cuminum cyminum'') is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the Irano-Turanian Region. Its seeds – each one contained within a fruit, which is dried – are used in the cuisines of many cultures in both whole ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

, and fresh lamb tail fat. In his 1865 book ''The Land of Israel: A Journal of Travels in Palestine'', British clergyman and scholar

Henry Baker Tristram Henry Baker Tristram FRS (11 May 1822 – 8 March 1906) was an English clergyman, Bible scholar, traveller and ornithologist. As a parson-naturalist he was an early, but short-lived, supporter of Darwinism, attempting to reconcile evolution an ...

documented the preparation of freekeh near the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee (, Judeo-Aramaic languages, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ), also called Lake Tiberias, Genezareth Lake or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth ...

Many fires were lighted on the shingle by the shores of the lake … A few sheaves of wheat had been brought down from the fields above; these were tossed on the fire, and as soon as the straw was consumed, the charred heads were dexterously swept from the embers onto a cloak spread on the ground. The women of the party then beat the ears and tossed them into the air until they were thoroughly winnowed, when the wheat was eaten without further preparation ... the green ears had become half-charred by the roasting, and there was a pleasant mingling of milky wheat and a fresh crust flavour, as we chewed the parched corn. We were delighted to have seen the preparation, and to have partaken parched corn, so often mentioned in the Old Testament Scriptures.

Culinary

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, freekeh is served as ''ḥamām bi’l-ferīk'' (pigeon stuffed with green wheat). Freekeh is also prepared in Egypt with onion and tomato, and sometimes with chicken. ''Shūrbat farīk bi’l-mukh'' is a freekeh and bone marrow soup from Tunisia. , a green wheat

pilaf Pilaf (), pilav or pilau () is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some technique for achieving ...

dish with roasted lamb, spring peas, and pine nuts, comes from

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

, and ''shūrba al-farīk'' is a soup with green wheat and chicken. In

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, freekeh usually is prepared with lamb, onion, butter, almonds, black pepper, cinnamon, cumin, and salt. In

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

and

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, freekeh is usually prepared as a main ingredient in a tomato-based soup called Chorba frik and is considered a traditional food. In

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, freekeh is known as ''firik'', and a pilaf dish based on freekeh, called ''firik pilavı'', is found in traditional Southern

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

n cuisine. It may be combined with

; legumes such as chickpeas and various herbs and spices, and sometimes meat, may be added. With the influx of millions of Syrian refugees since 2011, ''firik'' is available in markets all over Turkey. In

Palestine (region) The region of Palestine, also known as historic Palestine, is a geographical area in West Asia. It includes the modern states of Israel and Palestine, as well as parts of northwestern Jordan in some definitions. Other names for the region i ...

, a variety of freekeh pilaf is made with lamb, onion, olive oil, raisins, dried cherry plums, almonds, pine nuts, black pepper, cinnamon, cumin, and salt. Freekeh is also served in a soup along with chickpeas and meat (beef or chicken).

Nutritional value

Freekeh is comparable in nutritional content to other

cereal grain A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize (Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, suc ...

s, especially

, from which it is derived, depending on the durum

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

. Durum is notable for its high content of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

(20% or more of the

Daily Value In the U.S. and Canada, the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) is used in nutrition labeling on food and dietary supplement products to indicate the daily intake level of a nutrient that is considered to be sufficient to meet the requirements of 97� ...

, DV),

dietary fiber Dietary fiber (fibre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or roughage is the portion of plant-derived food that cannot be completely broken down by human digestive enzymes. Dietary fibers are diverse in chemical co ...

B vitamins B vitamins are a class of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in Cell (biology), cell metabolism and synthesis of red blood cells. They are a chemically diverse class of compounds. Dietary supplements containing all eight are referr ...

, and several

dietary minerals In the context of nutrition, a mineral is a chemical element. Some "minerals" are essential for life, but most are not. ''Minerals'' are one of the four groups of essential nutrients; the others are vitamins, essential fatty acids, and essen ...

, especially

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

(143% DV) (table). Before roasting, freekeh is 11% water, 71%

carbohydrates A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ma ...

, 2.5%

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...

, and 14% protein.

References

{{Cuisine of Lebanon Arab cuisine Lebanese cuisine Jordanian cuisine Palestinian cuisine Egyptian cuisine Syrian cuisine Israeli cuisine Turkish cuisine Algerian cuisine Tunisian cuisine Ancient dishes Bulgur dishes Middle Eastern cuisine

History

Culinary

Nutritional value

See also

References