Warm Balsamic Barley Salad

Tender and chewy barley mingles with ripe tomato, vegan Italian sausage, bright swiss chard, and protein-rich chickpeas. Lightly bathed in a basil-balsamic dressing, this is a beautiful and hearty salad that’s great warm or cold. It tastes even better the following day, which makes it the perfect “make ahead” salad!

Hey there! How's the midweek going for you? Mine has been really good; kind of busy but in the best way possible. My brother-in-law is visiting us here in Alaska from his college in Vermont to work on a short documentary regarding climate change. Part of that involved the Iditarod. Did you know for two years in a row snow has been carted by train over 350 miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage for the ceremonial start? This year it was shortened from 11 miles to just 3 miles. Pretty scary stuff. We spent the weekend photographing the dogs and Ross used his drone to capture some pretty awesome images. You can see more of his work at his Instagram, under username jrhenry10. Below is a drone shot he took of a musher leaving Willow after the real start (restart) with Denali in the background. 

He has also decided to be completely vegan for a month in response to realizing the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. The single best thing we can do to stop climate change is to stop consuming animal products. Maybe we can get him to be vegan for good? ;) Muahhahaha. If you'd like to learn more about the environment and how drastically it's affected by animal agriculture, check out the infographic at the very bottom of this post; it's one of the best I've seen yet.

“As far as eating is concerned, humans are the most stupid animals on the planet. We kill billions of wild animals to protect the animals that we eat. We are destroying our environment to feed the animals we eat. We spend more time, money and resources fattening up the animals that we eat, than we do feeding humans who are dying of hunger. The greatest irony is that after all the expenses of raising these animals, we eat them; and they kill us slowly. And rather than recognize this madness, we torture and murder millions of other animals trying to find cures to diseases caused by eating animals in the first place.”

— Mike Anderson

With the excitement and yearning for Todd and I to hang out with Ross instead of cooking, I've been turning to quick and easy dishes. Basically, my veg from the CSA box and any grain that tickles my fancy that day (or whatever I have left in the pantry). Along with fresh herbs (thanks to my Aerogarden), vegan sausage from the freezer, and some canned chickpeas this salad was among my favorite meals of the week! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Warm Balsamic Barley Salad

By Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Published 03/08/2016

Tender and chewy barley mingles with ripe tomato, vegan Italian sausage, bright swiss chard, and protein-rich chickpeas. Lightly bathed in a basil-balsamic dressing, this is a beautiful and hearty salad that’s great warm or cold. It tastes even better the following day, which makes it the perfect “make ahead” salad!

Ingredients

• 1 cup pearled barley, dry
• 3 cups water
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 Italian Field Roast sausages, diced
• 2 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, diced
• 1 small bunch of swiss or red chard, de-stemmed and chopped
• 1 15 oz can of chickpeas, drained
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1 tbsp agave nectar
• ½ tbsp soy sauce
• Pinch of salt, to taste
• Dash of black pepper, to taste
• ¼ cup fresh basil, chiffonade (optional)
• Garnish of broccoli sprouts or microgreens (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, bring the barley, water, and a pinch of salt to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cover; cook for about 30-45 minutes until the barley is tender and chewy. Drain and set aside.
2. While the barley cooks, heat the olive oil over medium-low in a large rimmed frying pan. Add the sausage, tomato, and chard; saute for about 5 minutes until the chard has wilted. Stir in the remaining ingredients excluding the fresh basil and sprouts; cook for an additional 5 minutes to warm the chickpeas.
3. Once the barley is done cooking, stir it into the chickpea mixture to combine. Serve the salad warm or cold and topped with fresh basil and sprouts. This salad is even better the following day!

Yield: 4

Anouk (ann-uhk) says hello! Isn't he the cutest? It's really strange having a small dog as I've always grew up with large dogs and let's be honest... Bob is pretty much the size of small pony with giraffe legs. I love the pink little butterfly on his nose too! It's very saddening that just about every week I discover a new scar on him somewhere. He has a little Alfalfaesc hair tuft on the very top of his head that I am always trying to smooth down; yesterday I realized there's a big scar underneath and that's why the surrounding hair doesn't lay flat *sad face*. He's only eight months! How could anyone hurt a little puppy? However, it warms my heart to know he's in a safe and loving home now *happy face*!

If you've been vegan for a while you've probably found yourself wondering how on earth your veggie laden entree is the same price as it's meaty counterpart. This article from Serious Eats helps you understand why. Still doesn't answer why we can't catch a break on holding off on the cheese and meats on pizza though... 

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The Broad Fork Cookbook Review & Balsamic Farro Salad w/ Dates & Beets

Sweet and savory with salty notes from the miso, this tangy-balsamic farro salad is studded with tender beets, mashed Medjool dates, and fresh herbs. It's a unique and stunningly delicious flavor profile. A perfect side dish and the tastiest way to use up all those beets! Heavily adapted from The Broad Fork cookbook.

I was so thrilled to get this new cookbook, The Broad Fork by Hugh Acheson. It read it's focus is recipes that implement the abundance of fresh produce delivered by a CSA (community supported agriculture). "I get a CSA box!", I excited thought to myself. This will be a terrific cookbook. A solution to the frequent, "What do I do with this?" head-scratching that sometimes accompanies the privilege of subscribing to a CSA. 

Perhaps my expectations were just a bit too high and a wee bit premature. 

The cookbook is divided by season and subcategorized by ingredient which I think is really fun and quite useful. Hugh writes, "This is a vegetable-centric guide to seasonal offerings." I feel I must begrudgingly disagree with him.

Yes, it's no shock that this is not a vegan let alone a vegetarian cookbook (I honestly kind of expected it to be vegetarian...) With a subtitle like, Recipes for the wide world of vegetables and fruits, I think this cookbook is a disappointingly misleading for those of us that are truly vegetable-centric (ie plant-based). Of course all the recipes do have plants (don't most?) but I didn't find the vegetables to the star of the show, as hinted. Doesn't it seem like that should be the point?

Some of Hugh's recipes include a few obscure ingredients (Espelette pepper, Manchego cheese, sorghum molasses, malt vinegar, Hungarian chile). He often doesn't provide any weights (grams or ounces) alongside his measurements (how much is exactly 2 cups of dates?). Many recipes require the home cook to make some little recipe on another page to be incorporated into this recipe. I know this is a common phenomenon, but it also happens to be a personal pet peeve of mine. There is no way I'm going to delve into making the preserved lemon on page blankety-blank to add to the gremolata in the recipe I'm trying to make. It just won't happen. You can't make me. 

In this cookbook, there are many...meat-centric recipes. More than vegetable-focused ones I should think. Pan-roasted pork tenderloin with sorghum and roasted apples / duck breast with indian eggplant pickle, / grilled pork belly with persimmons and spicy soy vinaigrette, turkey, andouille shrimp / collard greens gumbo, just to name a few. The plants definitely seem to take a backseat, no? Good luck substituting tempeh, seitan, and soy in all of those! And don't even get me started on the octopus in this cookbook! I daresay almost heaved the book across the room in sheer fright of the sight; a tangle of purple tentacles occupying an entire photo page.* Seriously what is that?

                                             *footnote: I have a most unusual, not to mention unsound, phobia of octopus tentacles so this would probably be a grave overreaction for most.

Perhaps I'm just jaded from all the wonderful, legitimate plant-based cookbooks I've had the pleasure of reviewing. The Broad Fork wasn't a total letdown (maybe I've been to severe in my review). I did vastly appreciate that half the book wasn't an appreciation of "what's in my pantry" or "here's how to chop a carrot" chapters. I know how to stock my pantry and use a knife, thank you. I don't need a 325 page instructional on what a potato peeler is and how to use it. 

My favorite part of this book is that almost every produce chapter includes a recipe to either make said produce into a long-term storage item or just use up a lot of that fruit or vegetable. As a consequence, there's a lot of pickling recipes...but also apple butter, purees, jams, etc. 

If you're not vegan, this is a pretty neat cookbook that will definitely stretch you outside your comfort zone of creativity in the kitchen. A good thing! However, if you are vegan I recommend passing on this one. There's hidden jewels of unique recipes that can be adapted but I'm not sure if it's worth rifling through the meat and animal-laden recipes to find and salvage them. 

I had to look through the cookbook twice to finally find a meal I could make. Hugh's farro and beet salad. It was honestly one of the only dishes that I wouldn't have had to meddle with too much and yet, there are too many adaptations I made to to even list. Regarding both the ingredients and the recipe flow. Also, my salad looked absolutely nothing like his; this gave me a good chortle for some reason. Leave it to me to take his beautiful masterpiece (I'd hang it on my wall..) and work it into the dreaded burgundy blob you see below! 

However, that burgundy blob is one of the best things I've ever tasted. Enough said. You need to make this syrupy salad.

Balsamic Farro Salad w/ Dates & Beets

Recipe by Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Sweet and savory with salty notes from the miso, this tangy-balsamic farro salad is studded with tender beets, mashed Medjool dates, and fresh herbs. It's a unique and stunningly delicious flavor profile. A perfect side dish and the tastiest way to use up all those beets! Heavily adapted from The Broad Fork cookbook.

Yield: 6 side dish servings

Ingredients

• 16 (10 oz) pitted medjool dates
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp vegan butter
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup farro, dry
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, stems discarded
• 4 cups water, divided
• 5 (1 .5 lbs beetroot trimmed) medium beets with their greens, scrubbed clean
• 1 tbsp red miso
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh mint, chopped
• 1/3 cup large-flake nutritional yeast

Cooking Directions

1. Add the dates, salt, crushed red pepper, and vinegar to a small saucepan. Pour in just enough water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat; reduce to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes until the dates are tender. When done, strain out the dates and reduce the vinegar liquid over medium-high heat for about 5-8 minutes until it has reduced by half. Mash the dates with the back of a wooden spoon and set both the dates and the liquid aside.
2. While the dates cook, heat the butter over medium in a large soup pot. Add the onion and sauté for about 3 minutes, until translucent. Add the dry farro and cook an additional 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the thyme leaves and 1 cup of water; cook for 5 minutes. Stir in another 1 cup of water and cook an additional 5 minutes. Scoop out about ¼ cup of the hot water and whisk the miso paste into it. Set aside.
3. While the farro simmers, clean the beets and cut off the greens. Remove the leaves from the stems. Discard the stems and slice the leaves into ribbons. Using a mandolin, slice enough beet to fill ½ cup (about 1 beet). Set aside. Small dice the remaining beets and set aside.
4. Add the diced beets (do not add the shaved beets yet), greens, and the remaining 2 cups of water. Over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, cook the farro for about 20-30 minutes until the water has evaporated and the farro is tender.
5. Stir in the shaved beets, reduced vinegar liquid, mashed dates, and miso, as well as the remaining ingredients. Mix to combine and serve hot!

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. Find The Broad Fork on Amazon.com.

*DISCLAIMER*  PRODUCE ON PARADE IS A PERSONAL BLOG WRITTEN AND EDITED BY MYSELF ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. MY REVIEWS ARE COMPLETELY BASED ON MY OWN OPINION OF THE PRODUCT REVIEWED. THESE PRODUCTS WERE SUPPLIED TO ME AS GIFTS TO TEST AND REVIEW. OTHERWISE, IF I MENTION A COMPANY BY NAME AND THERE IS NO DISCLAIMER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST, I AM MERELY WRITING ABOUT SOMETHING I LIKE, PURCHASE AND/OR USE. THE FACT THAT I DO RECEIVE A PRODUCT AS A GIFT TO TEST AND REVIEW, WILL NEVER POSITIVELY INFLUENCE THE CONTENT MADE IN THIS POST.

Sweet Potato & Balsamic Black Beans

If you've never made beans from scratch...the time has come. Beans are about the cheapest thing around and a superb powerhouse of nutrition and protein all in one. Eating a healthy, plant-based vegan diet can be quite frugal, contrary to popular belief. Just think of all the pennies you'll save from swapping beans for the carcasses of terrified, brutally confined animals! It's a win-win, don't you think? Oh, the more you know...and feel...and engage. Today I'm starting a new little bit called, If I Were President. See what I would do at the bottom of the post. 

“Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.”

— Helen Keller

Keller's words have never been more appropriate than now. While science helps force mother cows to produce more milk, factory farmed pigs to not get deadly sick even though they wade through their own filth, and chickens to grow so unnaturally large that they can't walk...we aren't addressing the real problem. The complete and profound lack of caring for these fellow creatures. And our mind-bogglingly gluttonous greed. 

I tried to make this side dish look as appealing as possible, but...you know...beans. They're not exactly the cover models in the world that is food photography. So, sorry for that. 

Sweet Potato & Balsamic Black Beans

Tender black beans combine with chunks of sweet potatoes and bathe in a spiced balsamic sauce for a healthy and delicious side. I’ve included instructions for using a pressure cooker or a soup pot. Adapted from JL Fields book, Vegan Pressure Cooking.

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups black beans, soaked overnight or 8 hours
• ½ tbsp olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp table salt
• 2 large sweet potatoes, diced
• 2 cups water
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• ¼ cup + 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Cooking Directions

1. In a pressure cooker, heat the olive oil over medium-low. Add the garlic and sauté a few minutes, until fragrant. Stir in the spices and salt.
2. Drain and rinse the beans. Add them to the pot along with the remaining ingredients, excluding the vinegar. Cover, turn heat to high, and bring to high pressure. Keep at high pressure for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and allow a natural release.
3. Once the pressure is released, uncover and stir in the vinegar. Over medium heat cook for about 10 minutes, uncovered, until most of the water has evaporated. Stir occasionally to keep the beans from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
4. Alternatively, you can use a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed soup pot with a lid and follow mostly the same instructions. However, cook the beans covered for about 1 hour at a simmer, then uncover and follow the same instructions. Check the beans for tenderness, they can vary widely in their cooking time and how long they were soaked for. Add the salt along with the vinegar if using this method.

If I Were President

I'd require every citizen to visit a factory farm and slaughterhouse. If they were still okay with the horrors, then they would be allowed to eat animals. No, just kidding. They'd have to live a day in the life of a mother cow who has had her calf stolen from her. Or be pumped full of growth hormones, or have his/her beak (nose) clipped off. Just the standard stuff. I don't think it's too extreme seeing as it happens to millions upon millions of living, sentient beings everyday.

Dutch Word of The Day

Apathy -->  onverschilligheid (onver-schil-ehide)

Good Deed of The Day

If you're still consuming animals, ditch that habit for one week. It's just one week. I think you can do it.