Author Notes: I love this salad because it’s hearty but light. I serve it all year round with meat, chicken or fish. —sweet enough
Food52 Review: This salad possesses the twin virtues of being both good for you and truly tasty. It’s a recipe that could easily veer into the arena of rabbit food but does not. The green beans, barley and wheatberries lend a variety of textures, while the vinaigrette brightens and pulls everything together. The addition of dill reminded us of dilly beans – in a good way. Heather calls for cooked barley and wheatberries, which we cooked separately in plenty of boiling salted water with a splash of olive oil. The barley (pearled) took 20 minutes, and the wheatberries about 40. For the dressing, we used 1 1/2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. – A&M
—The Editors
Serves: 4
Ingredients
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1
pound greeen beans, cleaned and cut in half
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1/2
cup wheatberries, cooked and cooled
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1/2
cup barley, cooked and cooled
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3
tablespoons fresh dill finely chopped
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1/3
cup 3 parts good olive oil to one part balsamic vinegar
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salt and pepper to taste
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1
finely minced shallot
Directions
- Place the beans in a pot with enough water to cover and a good pitch of salt. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, depending on how you like them. Drain and plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking.
- Whisk the olive oil, vinegar, shallot, salt and pepper. Put the cooled barley, wheatberries and string beans in a bowl and toss in the dressing and dill. correct seasoning and serve at room temperature.
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Before we even started the recipe, we had to cook both the wheatberries and the pearled barley. We found that cooking 1/2 cup dried grains in 4 cups of boiling water, with a splash of olive…
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Bring the water, olive oil, and salt to a rolling boil, add the grains, and cook to tender. The pearled barley took about 15 minutes to cook, and the wheatberries took about 40 minutes. But…
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Amanda takes on the dill, as Merrill attacks the green beans. We trimmed a lot of green beans that day…
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The recipe calls for 3T of dill, which seemed like a lot, but we used it all- and thought the recipe was just right.
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Like the fennel last week, using the cisele method yields evenly sized pieces of shallot.
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Ingredients sans beans. We used 1.5T balsamic vinegar, 4T extra virgin olive oil, and copious salt and pepper for the dressing.
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Then we added the minced shallot, and let it marinate in the dressing as we cooked the beans.
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Unlike other recipes, this one calls for the beans to be started in cold water. They turned out great!
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As soon as the beans were done to our liking, 4-5 minutes later, we immediately shocked them in an ice bath. This both stops the cooking, and preserves the vibrant green color of the cooked…
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Layering together the ingredients.
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Pepper. Lots of pepper.
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Finished! Beautiful!
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