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?
Love this recipe! Where do you buy your wheat berries though? I haven’t been able to find them at Loblaws!
I want to get back on track with organizing my time better. Towards the end of the semester I spent way too much time on school work and too little time with my friends. This upcoming semester I want to have more time for my friends and for personal pursuits like cooking and yoga!
I’m not sure, I will have to ask my MIL where she bought them!
I bought the wheat berries at a Health Food Store
MIL
thanks mom!
I just love wheatberries! They are perfect for salads and this one looks wonderful.
The salad looks amazing, I will definitely try it out. Where do you buy wheat berries?
im not sure where my MIL got them, I will have to ask her.
If you’re in the US you can get them in the bulk bins at Whole Foods.
My MIL got them at a health food store. They were also called Wheat Kernels and not wheat berries :)
Most stores in Canada have them in the bulk bins!
Thanks Lisa! I will look for them in Whole Foods.
I really feel the need to organize my life before 2011 starts. I always feel like a new year offers a new clean slate, and I like to begin the new year feeling in control and organzied! I’ll be cleaning & organizing tonight & tomorrow night!
I made this salad for lunch today and it looks gorgeous! I made it exactly as the recipe said, however, I would make two changes next time. These are both based on my personal taste…i would start with one clove of garlic, then add more if necessary. Secondly, i would use about half the amount of parsley(it’s not my favorite). Thanks for the entree ideas this week, I like sweets, but I love savory!
Great feedback! The beauty of it is that you can really adjust it to what you prefer. :) Hope you like it even more next time!
I have been following your wonderful blog for some time but I have never left a comment. This salad was amazing. I made it with farro and quinoa. It was delecious!
I just made this with black quinoa instead of wheat berries and it worked great, so yummy!!! I slapped some pesto hummus on top too, can’t wait to make the rainbow one :)
its so good with hummus!
This is SO good. Just made it. I love so many of your recipes! Thanks!! I just read online that you can “pop” wheat berries (like popcorn) to snack on them or top salads. I’m going to have to try this too. It did say to partially cook them before popping.
I made this last week and sent half of it home to my parents house. They called me tonight to tell me they are currently fighting over who gets the last little bit and that I have to make it again ASAP! HAHA… we ALL loved it! It was soooooo good!!!! Happy New Year :)
Just had this for lunch and it was great. Another success! I had to use soy sauce instead of tamari, and I didn’t soak the wheat berries before cooking them (also forgot to rinse them). Oh I also left out the tomatoes since the winter ones I get in NY are crap. But everything turned out wonderfully.
haha nice!!
I just made your recipe for Wheat Berry salad – I was very hesitant, as other wheat berry recipes I have found and made were not that tasty. This one is great and it is now in my “favorites” file. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful ideas and recipes. I love your site and always look forward to reading it. Happy New Year!
thanks Cindy Im glad you like it! Im going to try it with some spelt berries next time :)
New reader here. Thanks for introducing wheatberries to my diet. I tried this recipe; it didn’t turn out as flavorful as I had hoped for. It was a bit on the mushy side, but maybe that’s because of the tomatoes I used. The dressing was great.
Made this for the salad a day challenge for lunch tomorrow! Taste tested it tonight and oh my, its so good!!!
glad to hear that!
Just made this tonight but with quinoa since it’s what I had. Totally delish and my 3 yr old loved the deconstructed version i put on her plate. I served it with a cold pea and basil soup ( which she also loved to my amazement). Great for a hot summer night. I’ve made a few of your recipes now and they have all been winners. Thanks! And yes, i’m telling all my friends to read your site too!
Thank you so much Julie!
I am so glad that I found this web-site!! I am working through your recipe page, I started with the salads first. We loved the Red Quinoia Black bean salad so much that we made it every week, now we are off to the Wheatberry bean salad. My kids are athletes, as I wrote in earlier, and they want healthy meals, these fit the bill, healthy and good tasting. Thank you so much for your work in trying these recipes and then posting them. Lynn
Made this last night for my meat loving parents. They devoured it! I used quinoa instead of wheat berries and it was a terrific combo. Thanks for your blog, I LOVE IT.
I just made this…..it’s delicious! Im glad I finally tried wheat berries!
This salad looks great! Thanks for posting – can’t wait to try it!!
Hiya!
Your website is awesome! =) Any suggestions on what to replace wheat berries with? Not sure if I can get it easily here in Malaysia. Thanks!
Tried this with a creamy balsamic dressing as that’s what I had on hand and it was outstanding! I had never grated garlic before and whoa, does it ever pack a punch. Forgive me if I ever run into you in town and make a fool out of myself by saying what a fan I am of yours! I promise I will not ask for your autograph, lol
hah well I would love to meet you! Thanks for trying out the recipe, I’m happy that you enjoyed it.