Harvest Wheat Berry Salad

Today was a wonderful day! I took Faith to St. Cloud for a Mommy and Daughter day and we had a great time minus the big splat she did in a parking lot. We picked out her birthday party decor and crafts, had lunch together at Noodles and Company, made a TJ Maxx run, stopped at Once Upon a Child and got "free" Zhu Zhu pet things since I had store credit there, hit Crafts Direct, and made the usual Star Bucks run before heading home.

Even more wonderful was the fact that I remembered to put the wheat berries in the crock pot before we left this morning! Since I had the Relish issues out I decided to go ahead and try this one tonight. I am happy to report this is the January issue so I am not so far behind.

When salads have these kinds of ingredients they will always be a winner for me. I love pumpkin seeds and sunflower kernels and really any kind of dried fruit.

As I added the ingredients to the salad I was getting really excited. Look at all that color! Underneath the color is the wheat berries that were cooked to perfection in the crock pot on low for about 6 1/2 hours today, then I added the above ingredients and some cranberries and chopped parsley.

I also added a chopped up Honey crisp apple but I had this helper in the kitchen and so I forgot to take the picture. She LOVES to help in the kitchen and I need to be better about letting her do that but do you see this tiny little kitchen and nasty 1970's cupboards? I have never had a kitchen conducive for helpers, small or grown up!

The dressing starts with these ingredients. Due to sickness in the house we actually had some ginger ale which was perfect timing for trying out this recipe.

Then you need a little cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

You also need about 2 tbsp. lemon juice. This is the best little tool! I can't believe what a great job it does and it has a handy little measuring guide so you know how much you have squeezed out. Half a lemon fills that right up! Best $2.99 I ever spent! Add the lemon juice and mix the dressing up well and pour over the salad.

Stir the salad up well and give it a taste. I decided to add a little aged cheddar to mine after tasting but it would be great either way. I like aged cheddar an awful lot plus it has lots of probiotics in it so it is a bit better for you than other cheeses.

I had exactly 4 leftover zucchini boats so I heated those up and chopped up some fresh veggies and served the salad on the side. Normally we have fruit but there was plenty of fruit in this salad and it had all the healthy fiber and nutrients from the wheat berries. I only wish I had a couple more zucchini. Very good leftover!!!

The actual recipe called for 2 cups uncooked wheat berries and gives the instructions for cooking them. I put 2 cups in the crock pot this morning and filled it up with water and knew that would probably be way more than necessary since they plump up so much. So I would suggest 1 1/2 cups instead. You can cook them on the stove but you need to soak them a while and then cook them almost another 45 minutes so I like to cook them in the crock pot. I do have extra and I am going to freeze them. They freeze very well and you can take them out and defrost them in the microwave or heat them up in a bit of water on the stove. They stay pretty firm.

In other news, I am happy to report that I am working on a recipe page for you. You can access it from the top of the blog. Just click the button next to home that says recipes. You will be able to scroll through by category and when you click on the recipe you like it will link you back to the post where it appeared. I will maybe get them in alphabetical order at some point but for now you will be able to scroll through the categories. Hopefully this will help you if you are looking for something in particular. Some of my posts have more than one recipe on them so you may find a soup recipe first for example when you click on the oatmeal bread recipe. Just scroll down until you get to the one you are looking for. I wish there was a better way for me to do this but blogger wasn't really designed for that so this is what I came up with when I searched a little about adding a page like this. Hope this helps you all!



Harvest Wheat Berry Salad (From the January Relish Issue)

Salad

2 cups uncooked wheat berries (1 ½ cups is plenty in my opinion)

1 cup pumpkin seed kernels

1 cup sunflower seed kernels (my addition)

1 cup chopped apples

½ cup chopped dried apricots

½ cup dried cranberries

1 cup finely chopped parsley

Aged cheddar (my addition- I chopped mine up but shredded would be good too)

Dressing

½ cup ginger ale

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

½ tsp. salt

1.2 tsp. black pepper

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

 

1. To prepare salad, put wheat berries in to a large bowl, cover with at least 2 inches of water and set asides to soak at least 1 hour. Drain well.

2. Put 7 cups water into a medium pot and bring to a boil. Add wheat berries, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until thoroughly cooked about 40 minutes. Drain and let cool.

(Alternately, cook in a crock pot over night on low or for the day on low)

3. Transfer wheat berries to a large bowl. Add pumpkin kernels, sunflower seeds, apples, apricots, cranberries, parsley.

4. To prepare dressing combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk well. Pour over salad and mix well.

Wheat Berry Salad

I made the best dinner salad tonight and I have no one to really vouch for me. Miles has a sinus infection and he couldn't even taste my invention. I am so bummed. I know I am saying my kids' opinions don't matter. Usually I do care about that a little. I want them to like healthy food and be exposed to lots of different things, but if they don't like it I am still going to make them eat what I fix. So I guess in the big scheme of things their opionion only counts a tiny portion!

I started with some of these hard red spring wheat berries. I was first exposed to wheat berries at the craft fair in Spokane with my sister. Don't you love sampling all the dips, jams, butters, and sauces at those things. You don't even need to pay for lunch if you just sample your way through the fair.

Wheat berries are whole, unprocessed wheat kernels that contain all three parts of the grain, including the germ, bran and starchy endosperm. Only the hull, the inedible outer layer of the grain, has been removed. As a result, wheat berries retain all of the grain's vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals.  All wheat products are made from wheat berries, including white and whole-wheat flour. 

http://www.lesliebeck.com/ingredient_index.php?featured_food=120

You  can click on this link above if you would like more information about wheat berries and their nutrional content which is where I found the above description.

The only bummer about wheat berries is that they take a long time to cook. I have two words for you though. Crock Pot. Just put them in over night covered in water on low and they are good to go for the next days recipes after you drain them. Tonight I had time to cook them on the stove though. I love their soft inside crunchy outside texture and their nutty flavor!

Next I cooked some cut up chicken in balsamic and olive oil until done on the stove.

I didn't have much lunch so I wanted to make this a heartier dinner salad but it would be great without chicken too if you want to eat vegetarian one night or for lunch.

Then came all the good stuff!

Spinach

Sliced Figs

Sunflower Seeds

Raisins

Wheat Berries, of course

Seaside English Cheddar

This was such a unique combination of flavors and textures and very healthy!

I bought this cheese at Whole Foods. We totally are in love with it but I think you could find something similar in town. Just look for a sharper cheddar if all else fails.

Now I began contemplating what dressing I was going to mix in with these delicious flavors and textures and I remembered that I had some leftover fennel-dijon dressing from the cabbage slaw and I knew it would be perfect.

The recipe is from Kalyn's Kitchen, a blog I follow. I did make a few changes to this dressing. I used half mayo and half greek yogurt, no Vege-Sal, and Stevia instead of Splenda. Tonight I added more agave nectar. Here is the recipe:

Dressing:

1 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed in mortar and pestle or with a heavy rolling pin
1/2 cup mayo or light mayo (can use half plain yogurt and half mayo)
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 T sugar, Splenda, or agave nectar (use Splenda or agave nectar for South Beach diet)
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. Vege-Sal (vegetable seasoned salt) or salt
1 tsp. celery seed (optional)
fresh ground black pepper to taste.

I mixed the dressing all in and topped it with a little more cheese and wheat berries. I have to say this was my favorite dinner in a long time. I went to get seconds from the bowl after I finished mine and low and behold it was almost gone. I looked at my husband and said, "You ate more of this even when you can't taste it?" He replied, "Yes. I had the sense that it was really good. I liked the textures." I will be making this again when he can taste so I can get a little less biased opinion then my own, but I am guessing I might be on to something if he can't taste and he still ate seconds.

I did serve this with some orange slices and whole wheat oatmeal bread I had leftover from small group last night. I topped it with homemade cashew clementine butter and we also had a bowl full of veggies with dip.

So colorful and pretty. Put a bowl of veggies out like this often. You might be surprised what your kids will end up take out of there and trying. This is how I have gotten Faith to LOVE red peppers!

For the record, Evan did say, "Mmmmmmm....this is really good!" I think he mostly liked the chicken though. Now I must get on to those sugar free banana smoothies I promised the kids and preparing my breakfast, Overnight Oatmeal. I will share that soon!