spiced carrot wheat berries salad
I'm kicking off this holiday season with Simply Organic Foods as a partner for their "Cooking For a Change" campaign. Cooking is not only a way of sharing and caring, through making conscious choices and preparing food for my family, and sharing this daily on Instagram, I've been able to connect with the virtual food community and am inspired each day. As wonderful as this platform is, real-life connections are equally important which is why I host Foodie Friendsgiving to connect foodstagrammers in NYC. It's a fun opportunity to cook, share, take lots of pics (of course!) and to eat delicious foods. This year everyone shared amazing dishes that were prepared from ingredients made without single-use soft plastic packaging. Here's what I made: with local produce, and wheat berries purchased from my food co-op flavored these spices. The bottles are reused (plastic tops recycled) I hope you enjoy this for your own holiday table.
ingredients
FOR THE WHEAT BERRIES
1½ cups wheat berries
3 cups water
½ tsp salt
1 Simply Organic cinnamon stick
FOR THE CARROTS
2 bunches of carrots
2 Tbsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
Simply Organic five-spice powder
FOR THE MISO DRESSING
1 Tbsp chickpea miso
1 garlic clove
2” piece of fresh ginger
½ cup olive oil
½ of an orange, juiced
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp tamari
½ tsp Simply Organic white pepper
FOR THE KALE
½ a bunch kale
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
Juice of half a lemon
Sea salt, to taste
TO SERVE
1-2 apples, thinly sliced
method
Rinse and drain the wheat berries. Add water, salt and spices. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Let cool to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 425°F with a large baking sheet in the oven while preheating. Trim the stems of the carrots to 2" from the base. Scrub and dry with a tea towel.
Blend all the Miso Dressing ingredients together until smooth. Set aside.
When the oven is hot, take the baking sheet out and drizzle with olive oil. Add the carrots, giving the pan a good shake to coat them evenly. Sprinkle with salt and sprinkle with five-spice powder. Bake for 25-30 minutes until soft. Let cool slightly.
Remove the leaves from the kale stems and place into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and using your fingertips, massage the oil onto all surfaces. Toss with the nutritional yeast, lemon juice and salt.
To assemble, layer the kale salad as the base, then the wheat berries, spreading evenly on the platter. Line the carrots up, add the apples drizzle with miso dressing and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
This article was created in partnership with Simply Organic.
All opinions expressed are my own.
