sesame, barley and mung bowl

As much as I love the clip from the Simpsons, ‘you don’t win friends with salad‘ I become irrationally angry when people think that salads are light, flavourless, there for decoration or for your friend who compulsively diets. Perhaps this is a slight hangover from when I lived in Argentina and if on one day I didn’t feel like eating meat, the waiter would say, “oh, so you’re not eating then”. It annoys me because salads are hearty and awesome

Most nights I will make one main and two salads, or one main one simple cooked salad and a raw salad. This was Sunday night’s salad and I made it on a whim because we had extra cooked barley from the tomato soup that I made (see previous post) and some extra mung beans. I’m extremely surprised with this because of how much flavour it has, but with very little in it (for dressing we only had salt – as always, pepper and oil, but I suggest lemon and/or garlic grounded up with salt and oil in the mortar + pestle and then drizzle that over. Make sure to only use one garlic clove because the salt will magnify the garlic 3 fold).

These measurements are quite rough, so add and mix as you please. Also, the essential ingredients are the chopped toasted almonds and toasted sesame seeds. THEY ARE A MUST:

1 cup mung beans pre cooked

1 cup cooked barley (you could use brown/wild rice instead, or quinoa)

2 tbsp sesame seeds toasted

3 tbsp chopped roasted almonds

1 punch each of sunflower seeds and pepitas

1 avocado chopped

1 punch finely chopped kale (rocket would be great too. I also used a couple of lettuce leaves from the garden)

salt/pepper/lemon/oil to taste (don’t ever go light on oil. If you feel guilty about oil, you’re a food hater)

I’ve only made this once and I am already dreaming about having it with friend oily fish like mackerel or barramundi (with crispy skin) cooked on the barbeque during summer.