After holiday season feasting, a dozen too many Christmas cookies, and free-for-all travel eating, our family is ready to clean up our diets. My oldest daughter came to the grocery store with me for a restock after our trip abroad and we found ourselves excitedly filling our cart with greens, vegetables, and whole grains.
My husband grew up in the Nethlerlands so we travel there often. While visiting Dutch country for 8 days over Christmas, we felt compelled to sample all our favorite things: french fries with frite saus (mayonnaise-like dip), pannekoeken (Dutch pancakes), stroopwafels (caramel filled thin waffles), kibbeling (fresh fried fish at the market), bitterballen (basically breaded and fried balls of ground up meat stew), and more new years oliebollen (fried dough balls) than I care to admit. Is your stomach turning just from reading the list?
It’s no surprise we were craving healthier foods upon our return. When you have bloated bellies or need to restart your system, wheat berries are a good starting place. This salad is a new iteration of a few different wheat berry salads I’ve made in the past. It scores high on the good-for-you scale with hearty grains, healthy greens, super foods, vitamins, and anti-oxidants. A little feta cheese is added to increase the yummy factor.
This wheat berry salad is flexible. You can try different types of nuts, substitute orange sections for the pomegranate, or use spinach instead of kale. If follow a gluten-free diet, you can substitute a gluten-free grain like quinoa or millet.
You can make this wheat berry salad ahead and keep it for a few days in the refrigerator. If you need to clean up your act like we do, this winter salad is a healthy jumpstart.
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Clean-Up-Your-Act Winter Wheat Berry Salad
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 servings 1x
Description
This winter wheat berry salad is packed with whole grains, super foods, anti-oxidants, vitamins – all the things you need to jumpstart a healthy diet!
Ingredients
2 cups soft wheat berries
6 cups water
2 teaspoons fine-grain sea salt, plus more as needed
2 cups of washed and chopped fresh kale
¾ cup pomegranate seeds
½ cup toasted and chopped walnuts
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
For Dressing:
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper
Instructions
1. Combine the wheat berries, water and 2 teaspoons salt in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer, until plump and chewy, about an hour or so. You can also cook them in an Instant Pot. Find instructions here. Drain the wheat berries.
2. While the wheat berries cook, make the dressing. Combine the orange zest and juice, honey, and shallot. Whisk in the olive oil and season with a few pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
3. Toss the wheat berries with the kale, pomegranate, walnuts, and citrus dressing, then top with the feta. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.
Notes
Wheat berry salad stores well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
The ingredients are flexible – you can use what you have on hand for fruit, greens, and nuts.