This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)
Thursdays are crazy schedule days for me.
Morning, trying to get the girls ready for their day care before the meeting with my Taiwan colleagues starts, work, rush home to pick up girls, home, feed the dog, clean up the mess she left when we were out, organize the girls to go out, ride to supermarket, meet the hubby there, groceries shopping, getting late, ride back home (girls will usually fall asleep in the car), evening meeting with US based colleagues, then Capoeira lesson.
If I won’t eat anything i’ll go crazy hungry during Capoeira, if I eat too close to the lesson I won’t be able to practice. If i’ll come to the supermarket hungry i’ll eat stuff there that i’ll regret later. What shall one do??
wheat barley take away salad
What I do to solve this situation, is I usually prepare a to go dish in advance, which I eat before I go into the supermarket. While this may sound crazy, it works perfectly for me. This way I don’t eat the silly stuff in the supermarket I would otherwise, and I eat long before the practice so no worries there. For this to work though I have to make a dish that can be made quickly, that’s easy to take in a box, and which is tasty cold also. This is exactly this wheat barley salad recipe i’m going to share today.
This salad is super easy to make, and is really tasty. A few notes:
The best combination of add ins, in my mind, is pecans, cranberries, and olives. But if you don’t have pecans other nuts (like walnuts) would work also, and if you don’t have cranberries other dried fruit (like raisins) would work also. The olive are crucial for the taste as they add a saltiness that gives the extra edge to this salad.
wheat barley take away salad ingredients
I usually cook the wheat barley the day before (when I have more time), and keep it in the fridge. You can also prepare the gravy a day ahead and keep in the fridge. The important note is don’t mix them before you are ready to it. The add ins for the barley you can keep in the same box with the barley. The to go version looks like this:
wheat barley take away salad
The Dishometer Rating:
- For the barley:
- 1 cup wheat barley
- 2 and a ½ cups water
- a handful of pecans
- a handful of dried cranberries
- a handful of olives
- 1 bunch scallion
- ½ ts salt
- For the gravy:
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 2 tbs balsamic vinegar
- 1 ts mustard
- 1 ts date syrup or pomegranate molasses
- Put the wheat barley (1 cup) with the water (2½ cups) in a pot and bring to a boil, add the salt, reduce the heat to medium and keep cooking until all water is absorbed (about 20 minutes). Keep aside in a bowl, or in the fridge if preparing for take away. Note that the wheat barley tend to be quiet sticky and create lumps, but that's fine, simply crumble them with a fork when ready to eat then mix with the gravy.
- Cut the olives, the scallions and the pecans, and add them as well as the dried cranberries to the bowl with the cooked wheat barley, and mix gently.
- Prepare the gravy: place the olive oil (2 tbs), balsamic vinegar (2 tbs), mustard (1 ts), and date syrup/pomegranate molasses (1 ts) in a jar, close the lid and mix until combined.
- When ready to eat, pour the gravy on the salad and mix to combine.
Do you have crazy days like this also? share your tips in the comments!
Bon-Apetit.
3 תגובות
Salad sounds delicious I would have never thought to put olives and nuts together I will definitely be trying this also I am a new vegan so I am interested in winning your cookbook and trying some other recipes of yours. Thanks for the giveaway
This sounds wonderful, but I’ve never heard of wheat barley. Is it similar to hulled barley, which I usually have on hand?
You could use either.