Wheat Berry Salad

A grain salad with dried cranberries, black-eyed peas, mint and Feta cheese.

My ancestors left Europe in the 1840’s to escape the Austro-Hungarian war. They settled in Kansas and grew red winter wheat on the Kansas plains around Claflin. Every year, my mom would help with the harvest in June. Her job was to drive the truck that the wheat was dumped into before it went to the CO-OP to be sold.

Growing up we always had some wheat from her family’s farm around. My mother would boil the whole grains and we ate it for breakfast. This salad was on the brunch menu at Myra’s Dionysus. And of course, she created other recipes that used wheat berries.

Myra sent me this recipe in an email. Her last line was, “I upped the wheat berries from 2 to 4 cups, because I like them.”

There are several different wheat berries you can buy at the store. Winter wheat can take up to 2 hours to cook. I found a brand called Prairie Gold at Natural Grocers. It cooks in an hour, it tastes great and it looks pretty too!

Wheat Berry Salad

A grain salad with dried cranberries, black-eyed peas, mint and Feta cheese.

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Servings 6 cups

Equipment

• 1 Two quart sauce pan
• knife and cutting board
• measuring cup and spoons
• 1 large bowl

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup whole wheat berries (3 cups cooked)
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1 15 oz. can of black-eyed peas, drained or 2 cups cooked B.E.peas
• 1/2 cup red onion,chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 1/2 TBLS Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 cup fresh mint, chopped OR 2 TLBS. dried mint
• 3/4 cup Feta cheese, crumbled

Instructions

 

• Cook the wheat berries: Put 1 cup of wheat berries and 3 cups of water in your pot. As soon as it boils, turn it down to medium so that you get a slow boil. Set your timer for 45 minutes. When the timer goes off, check to make sure you have enough water, and cook for another 15 or 20 minutes. Taste the wheat after 60 minutes. If it's still too chewy for your taste, give it another 10 or 15 minutes. If you are cooking winter wheat, it may need 2 hours to be soft enough.

  When the wheat is cooked, let it sit for 30 minutes, dump any extra water off and Put it in your bowl.
• Mix the oil, lemon and mustard together, add it to the bowl. Chop the mint and red onion, add it to the bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Serve cold.

Keyword black-eyed peas, dried cranberries, Feta cheese, Fresh mint, red onion, whole wheat berries