On occasion Miss K’s kindergarten has a surplus of food left over from their lunch. Yesterday it was cooked barley and I was given a large container of it to take home. I love surplus food – what an opportunity!
After perusing some possibilities and feeling inspired to experiment, I decided to make a salad to take to pot-luck dinner tonight. It’s turned out quite well and so I thought it worth sharing.
I would describe it as a sweet-and-sour salad. For those of you who need to avoid gluten, you might replace the barley with a gluten-free grain. The salad is vegan as well.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of cooked barley
- half a medium-sized Hokkaido pumpkin
- 2 large carrots
- 1 medium-sized clove of garlic
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- sweet paprika powder
- half a lime
- optional: some mango or mango-nectar
- 2 oranges
- 2 tablespoons of balsamic
- 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
- a handful of fresh mint leaves
- a handful of chopped spring onion
Instructions:
- Cut up carrot and pumpkin into small cubes, place into a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of balsamic, salt, pepper and paprika powder. Bake in the oven at 175-200°C until golden brown
- Place cooled barley into the salad bowl. Peel the oranges and divide into their parts, cut these into smaller pieces and place in with the barley. Mix together with the handful of chopped spring onion. Set aside in the fridge.
- Into a small blender (or you could use a hand-held mixer) place the clove of garlic, mint leaves, 3 tablespoons of olive oil the juice of half a lime, one tablespoon of balsamic, salt and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup (plus optionally mango/mango-nectar). Blend until smooth and salad-dressing-like. Mix this into the barley and orange in the salad bowl
- Add the cooled pumpkin and carrot into the salad bowl and mix carefully.
- Serve!
Spring is here, the sun is out and salad is glorious!
Mrs Winter Creates 