Broken Wheat

Broken wheat is whole wheat grain cracked into small pieces, also sold as cracked wheat or bulgur style wheat. It keeps the bran, so the cooked texture is chewier and heartier than semolina. North Indian families cook it as dalia, savoury with vegetables or sweet with milk and sugar. In Gujarat it becomes lapsi, a festive sweet fried in ghee with jaggery and cardamom, and in Tamil Nadu it is godhumai rava, cooked into upma, pongal or kichadi.

It is easy to confuse with sooji, but semolina is milled from the inner endosperm and cooks smooth; broken wheat keeps the whole grain and stays nubbly. Medium cracks suit both sweet and savoury dishes, while coarse cracks are better for pulao style dishes. It contains gluten, like all wheat.

Roast broken wheat in a teaspoon of ghee until it smells toasty before adding water, which keeps the grains separate. Use about three cups of water per cup for upma and cook covered until soft; a pressure cooker needs two to three whistles. For a finer grain, try semolina, and for other whole grains see millets and barley under millets and grains.