California barley bowl with arugula, avocado, seeds, and feta

December 31, 2014 at 4:39 pm (101 cookbooks, breakfast, Dark leafy greens, Grains, Necessarily nonvegan, Salads, Starches, unrated)

This was another pantry-cleaning-inspired selection. I wanted to use up some whole (unhulled) barley, and Derek and I chose this refreshing-sounding recipe for a barley salad from the 101 cookbooks website.

We couldn’t get any cotija cheese or queso fresco, so used feta instead. And I couldn’t find chives, so I used mint in the yogurt sauce. I used a mix of different nuts and seeds (almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, pecans, and sesame seeds).

The final salad was reasonably tasty, but I couldn’t really taste the avocado. Maybe Derek cut it too small, but it just disappeared into the dish. Also, both Derek and I preferred the salad without the yogurt sauce. It seemed to overpower the other flavors. Without the yogurt sauce you could more clearly taste the arugula and seeds. The salad was a tad dry though. I think the recipe would benefit from the addition of a moist fruit or vegetable to the salad, like cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, or apples.

Overall we thought this dish was fine, but not exciting enough to make again.