Beet, Walnut, Wheat Berry Salad With Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

"This salad can be served as a main dish--it has a combination of grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds to provide complete proteins--or as a side dish. It is a versatile dish, too. You could easily swap out various ingredients to adjust it to your taste. For example, you could swap oranges for limes, rice for wheat berries, lentils for beans, parsley for cilantro, or roasted sweet potatoes for beets."
 
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photo by magpie diner photo by magpie diner
photo by magpie diner
Ready In:
1hr 15mins
Ingredients:
12
Yields:
6 main courses
Serves:
6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Cook the wheat berries in salted water until softened and chewy. You can either soak overnight to reduce cooking time; bring to a boil, remove from heat and then let soak a few hours in advance; or bring to a boil and simmer until cooked through. It is important to salt the water when cooking the grains so they absorb the salt and have flavor--but don't over salt!
  • Once the wheat berries are cooked to your desired consistency, drain them and drizzle with the rice wine vinegar (they absorb more flavor now than when they cool).
  • Heat oven to 400°F While the wheat berries are cooking, cut the tops and bottoms off the beets, peel, and cube into 1/2" pieces. In a bowl, toss cubed beets with the 2 tbsp olive oil and salt to taste. Spread evenly on a cooking sheet (preferably lined w/parchment paper for no stick cooking and easy clean-up). Cook beets until they are beginning to caramelize (approximately 30 - 45 minutes). Remove from oven and allow to cool a bit.
  • In a large bowl, add cooked wheat berries, drained beans (or other legume), roasted beets, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, scallions, cilantro, lime zest and juice, and olive oil. Stir well. Taste. Season with more salt, acid (either more citrus juice or vinegar), or oil to bring the flavors in to balance.

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Reviews

  1. Earthly delight! This is an awesome salad. I left out the pumpkin seeds, did not miss them. I will make this one again as I often get wheat berries in my CSA share, and don't always know what to do with them. Thank you for the very healthy lunch!
     
  2. I have made this many times over the years, and must apologize for not rating it sooner. It is excellent. From this recipe, I leaned how tasty roasted beets can be.
     
  3. Great recipe I'll make many times I'm sure. I really love wheat berries (spelt berries in my case), and appreciated the simple dressing. The beets were fantastic. In the end I didn't bother opening the tin of black beans I had to go with this, because I liked it so much as-is. I also goofed and forgot the green onions & cilantro at the market. Will make again using chickpeas or lentils. Thanks!
     
  4. Awesome recipe. I used sliced almonds instead of walnuts, did not use scallions, garbanzos instead of black beans, and skipped the scallions. Love recipes that are so easy to use substitutions.
     
  5. Because I had to make so many changes, I am not assigning stars, but I have to say, I suspect this would be a five star recipe. I did not have beans, cilantro, rice vinegar or walnuts. I still had a very tasty salad at the end of the day. I love wheat berries, and cook them in my rice cooker. I had roasted beets already available, so did not caramelize mine, which I am sure added to the taste. Used balsamic instead of rice wine vinegar, and I think that went well with the ingredients. I woldl probably hold back a bit on the lime juice - limes do vary in acidity and mine were perhaps a tad too tart. Still, all in all, even with my massive changes, this was a very enjoyable salad.
     
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Tweaks

  1. Awesome recipe. I used sliced almonds instead of walnuts, did not use scallions, garbanzos instead of black beans, and skipped the scallions. Love recipes that are so easy to use substitutions.
     
  2. Because I had to make so many changes, I am not assigning stars, but I have to say, I suspect this would be a five star recipe. I did not have beans, cilantro, rice vinegar or walnuts. I still had a very tasty salad at the end of the day. I love wheat berries, and cook them in my rice cooker. I had roasted beets already available, so did not caramelize mine, which I am sure added to the taste. Used balsamic instead of rice wine vinegar, and I think that went well with the ingredients. I woldl probably hold back a bit on the lime juice - limes do vary in acidity and mine were perhaps a tad too tart. Still, all in all, even with my massive changes, this was a very enjoyable salad.
     
  3. This will be a new favorite summer salad. Really tasty! I left out the walnuts (allergic) but added some sunflower seeds instead. I also used canned beets, cut in julienne, to save time. Delicious! and so healthy.
     

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