barley salad

It's been too long since I've done this. Hello blogland, I'm like all the others.

But this is too good not to share. Barley Salad. It's far too bland a name for the chewy goodness that makes happy in my mouth, but I don't know what else to call it.

A few weeks ago I signed up for a Greener Grocer bag at work. Weekly I get a little bundle of goodness and my personal challenge is to eat all the food in the bag in a week. It's no small feet. I travel a wee bit and I struggle to eat some things because of WLS. I do give some away too, but shhh, don't tell.

Today I was given barley, ramps and feta cheese. Recently I read on the Splendid Table all about making grain salads. I had leeks left over from previous weeks...I thought salad. Leeks and barley are bosom buddies. So here's what I did.

1c barley
a bit of olive oil
5 cups of water
kosher salt

4 cups leeks
more olive oil
more salt
wine

1 tomato
10 mint leaves
1 clove garlic
3 ramps or more garlic
10 dried apricots, zapped in the microwave to make softer
1 c cucumbers, no seeds
1 lime

4 oz of mild feta cheese

In a heavy pot toast the barley in the olive oil. Add water,  bring to boil and simmer for 30 to 60 minutes. Cook the heck out of it. Drain and put on a cookie sheet to cool quickly.

Cut and clean the leeks. Clean them again and maybe one more time. Sautee in olive oil. Add salt, when they are limp add wine, cook that down. Cool on the cookie sheet.

Dice the tomato, mince the ramps and or garlic, dice the apricots and cucumbers.

In a big bowl add everything. Juice the lime and crumble the feta.

Eat it up, yum.