Nutty Barley Salad

For some people a rainy day seems glum, grey and downright depressing.

I love the rain.  I love lightning and thunder and I especially love  rain, lightning and thunder while being alone at home.

Is that weird?  Then I’m ok with being weird because yesterday was a good day.

I felt like making something hearty with the cooler weather and wanted to use up some vegetables that I had ignored all weekend.

Nutty Barley Salad

• 6 cups of cooked barley (2 cups barley cooked in 9 cups of water)
• 1 bunch scallions sliced thinly
• 4 small/medium carrots peeled and diced
• 4 stalks of celery diced
• 2 cherry peppers diced
• 1/2 cup each almonds, walnuts and pumpkin seeds toasted and roughly chopped

Dressing

• 2 t cumin
• 1 t chili powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 t onion powder
• 1 large tomato stem removed and cut into quarters
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/4 cup water

Directions

Boil 9 cups of water in a large stock pot.  Add 2 cups of barley to boiling water and simmer until barley is tender but still chewy.   Drain and set aside until cooled.

Add barley and all other ingredients to a large bowl and toss well.

Prepare dressing by placing all ingredients into a blender (I used the magic blender) and pour over salad. Mix well.

This is vegan and gluten-free.  I added no oil to the dressing since there’s a good amount of nuts in the salad. You may at first think there is too much dressing but the next day you’ll find that the barley has sucked up most of the liquid.  This will keep for 4-5 days.