I deemed that this week is officially my Get Back On Track Week!
Over the past few weeks, my eating, exercise, and home life/work routines have been all over the place.
Wait, who am I kidding, my life has been all over the place since September actually!
My goal for the next few days is to get organized and get back on track, hopefully achieving a nice balance once again. I absolutely love the last week of the year to get organized for the new year ahead. This week, I will also be talking about my goals for 2011 and I will be going over last year’s goals to see how I did.
Many of you expressed interest in the salad that my mother-in-law made, so I thought today would be a great time to do a recipe post on a healthy salad that makes for a great ‘getting back on track’ dish! I am just in love with this salad. It is in my Top 5 all-time favourite salads for sure.
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Back On Track Wheat Berry and Bean Salad
Adapted from Alive Magazine.
Yield: 7.5-8 cups
Salad Ingredients:
- 1 cup dry wheat berries, cooked and drained
- 2 cups/500 ml cooked navy beans (I was out so I used chickpeas!)
- 1 English cucumber, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 large tomato, diced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup fresh parsley, diced with large stems removed
- 4 green onions, diced
- Kosher salt + pepper, to taste
Dressing Ingredients:
- 2-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, to taste (I used 2 tbsp)
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp hot mustard (I used regular)
- 1 tbsp Tamari
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Directions: In a medium bowl, soak the wheat berries overnight in cold water. The next day, drain the wheat berries and place in a medium sized pot, covered in 3 inches of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 1 hour. Drain and cool.
In a large bowl, mix together the diced vegetables (cucumber, red pepper, tomato, minced garlic, parsley, green onions). Add in cooked and drained navy beans (or other bean of choice) and stir.
In a small bowl whisk together the dressing ingredients (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, Tamari, fresh lemon juice). Set aside.
When the wheat berries are ready, drain and rinse and then stir into the salad. Add the dressing just before serving and stir well. Now season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Garnish with additional parsley if desired.
Yield: 7.5-8 cups.
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Gather up the troops and the wheat berries that you soaked overnight! Place the wheat berries in a medium sized pot covered with 3 inches of water and simmer on medium for 1 hour.
While the wheat berries are cooking, dice your little heart out.
You want the veggies diced very small.
Stir the veggies together in a large bowl and set aside.
Now make your dressing with Tamari, EVOO, balsamic vinegar, hot mustard (I didn’t have any), and fresh lemon juice.
I decided to try reducing the oil in this recipe by half and it turned out amazing! I actually think I liked the dressing better with 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil vs. 4 tbsp. It really made the balsamic vinegar pop.
Whisk.
I realized that I didn’t have any navy beans after all, so I decided to use chickpeas instead.
After 1 hour of simmering, I drained and rinsed the wheat berries.
Add them in and stir well.
Add dressing and mix again.
Season with kosher salt and pepper to taste.
Serve!
One of my favourite salads of all time. It has so many amazing flavours and textures and it is high in protein and fibre too! I think this was my first time trying wheat berries too. They add such a great texture to salads. I will definitely be buying more in the future!
It makes about 8 cups worth. Enough to fuel the week ahead.
Now that the holidays are drawing to a close, are you thinking about getting back on track or re-organizing your life in some way?
This looks delicious! I love taking salads like this to work for lunch – they always keep me satisfied all afternoon long. I’ll have to add wheatberries to my grocery list so I can give this a try!
I was inspired by your pretty wheatberry pics and just cooked some and tossed them together with stuff I already had in the kitchen (arugala, celery, scallions, pom seeds, and pistachios). What a great ingredient! And I can’t wait for your New Year’s-themed posts–I love resolutions. 2010 has been my best year yet, and it really is largely due to discovering healthy, positive blogs like this one–can’t wait to see what will happen in 2011!
I’m trying my hardest to reduce the amount of sweets I eat. I have been eating so many dessert foods that my sweet tooth has become larger than life!
DELISH!!!!
I made the salad for lunch and everyone LOVED it!
Thank you so much Angela for your wonderful recipes and for your inspiration!
I wish you will write a cook book one day… any chance?
YOU ARE AWESOME!!!
Perfect! Thanks for the get back on track inspiration! :) This salad looks beautiful.
Heidi xo
First time commenting although I have been a huge fan for quite some time. Any suggestions as to how to make this amazing salad gluten free? Not able to have wheat berries or soy sauce but sure wishing I could! Love your photos and recipes and your views on life. You are such an inspiration to me. Hoping 2011 will be a wonderful year for you!
Thank you Connie!
I’m sorry, but I’m not sure on how to make this gluten free. Are there any GF grains that you could use in replacement of the wheat berries?
The salad even looks a little festive!
I love a good grain salad full of flavor and fresh veggies!! Yum!! I’m so excited to get back on track with eating habits now that the holidays are through!!
I love a good grain salad full of flavor and fresh veggies!! Yum!! I’m so excited to get back on track with eating habits now that the holidays are through!!
i love wheatberries! this will be perfect in the summer when I have lots of fresh parsley to use up :) cold salads are the best. i’m definitely doing major organizing in my life and taking a new direction for 2011!
I just had this salad for dinner and it was amazing! I couldn’t wait for the wheat berries to soak overnight, so I rinsed them, brought them to a boil in 3 cups of water and a little salt, reduced the heat and simmered for an hour. I think I might so back for seconds soon :)
I am definitely thinking about what lies ahead in 2011 and organizing my apartment, running tons of errands and setting goals for the next year.
We are totally trying to get back on track after the holidays. There was tons of sugar and little whole grains: no wonder I was so tired and moody! This week is all about veggies, lean proteins, and zero sweets. Your salad looks seriously yummy- filling and good for you too!
I’m definitely ready to scale back on the baked goods to recover from the holidays. My body says NO MORE SUGAR!!!
This dish looks amazing and I just happen to have some wheat berries in the pantry! Yum!
I’m sooo joining you for Get Back on Track Week!! Just had a delicious wheat berry salad from Whole Foods today – delish!
that salad look superb! so fresh and colorful!
Thank you for posting! I’m going to make a trip to Whole Paycheck tomorrow for some wheatberries. I’m thinking I’ll do them with black-eyed peas and collards for NYE. :)
Looks divine Angela! I made a similar salad for my mum last night but with quinoa…soooo good! She has wheat berries in her cupboard so I’ll recommend this recipe to her!
Hi Angela,
I don’t know what kind of analytics you have on your website, but I’m your dedicated reader from Slovakia:) I’ve been a vegetarian since I was ten years old but this summer I developed a lactose intolerance so I found your blog and have been using it as a crutch to gradually reducing all animal products since then.
I’m not going to take the full vegan plunge until/if we go back to the US though. It’s ridiculous how much I took leafy greens for granted back home because they don’t have fresh spinach here and it just about kills me (I’ve heard they have Kale here but I have yet to find it).
Anyway, I’ve started using buckwheat a lot recently and I’ve noticed you don’t have any recipes that include it. Have you used it? It’s a complete protein so I love incorporating it in salads like this one you posted. It’s also gluten free.
Thank you so much for your blog. I love it:)
I haven’t used it but it is on my list for sure!