Barley Super Green Salad

This salad is ridiculously delicious and incredibly healthy. Its bursting with  fiber rich complex carbs, vitamins and minerals, plant proteins, probiotics, healthy fats, antioxidant and enzymes to make you feel energetic, build strong immunity , a healthy gut and generally feeling supercharged.

Nights when we want a light yet hearty salad without getting weighed down I make this salad, it’s also a good way to clean out the fridge. This salad is very well balanced and satisfying with a creamy dressing, crunchy vegetables, chewy barley, sweet berries, zesty herbs, and soft avocado . The ingredient list may seem a lot, but it come together very easily.

Heres what you’ll need:

makes about 3-4 servings

Barley Super Salad

• 1/2 cup whole barley, soaked and cooked should yield about 1 1/2 cup cooked barley
• 1 cup lentil sprouts or cooked lentils or chickpeas
• 2-3 medium-sized Dino/ Tuscan Nero kale leaves, middle rib removed and torn into bite size pieces
• 2 cups lightly steamed broccoli florets or a few snap peas
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1 avocado, scooped and sliced
• 1/2 cup one or any combination of shelled: peas, fava beans or edamame
• 2-3 cups organic baby greens, choose one or mix: spinach/ kale/ chard/ wild arugula/ mesclun
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds or sliced almonds
• 1 handful mix or one herb/s: cilantro/ parsley/ mint roughly chopped
• A few goji or any fresh berries, for just a little sweetness
• 1/2 teaspoon cold pressed extra virgin olive or flax oil or sea buckthorn oil to massage kale
• sea salt and black pepper

• For the Miso Tahini dressing

• ¼ cup tahini
• 1 tablespoon white miso
• Juice from half a lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup to balance flavors
• 1½ tablespoons rice vinegar
• ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• generous pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
• ⅓ cup water

1. In a small bowl or a jar, whisk together the salad dressing ingredients. Sit for 10 minutes before you serve. I like whisking it in a jar, it keeps everything clean and you can save the leftover in the fridge. No extra dish to clean up.
2. Massage the kale leaves a little flax or olive oil and salt to soften.
3. Cook the barley. Season and keep warm.
4. Prepare the vegetables as described in the list.
5. In a large bowl place the barley, beans or chickpeas, peas, broccoli, onion, nuts, goji, season and toss well.
6. Mix the herbs, kale and greens. Gently toss with barley mix. Top with sliced avocado. Serve with dressing on the side or pre mix as you prefer. You might not need all of the dressing.
7. Eat right away!