This salad has a nice mixture of mint and parsley, with a wonderful dressing using apple juice. It was easy to veganize, by using agave instead of honey.We also added pomegranate seeds for texture and color. This was a quick and easy recipe to make, full of flavor and very healthy.

Barley is one of our favorite grains, and we tend to forget to use it.  The recipe quite easy to make, we only changed the mushrooms to fresh shiitake, as oyster mushrooms were not available and the shiitake were. Otherwise we followed the simple instructions and really enjoyed the meal. We had a nice crop of fava beans (broad bean) this year and froze quite a few servings, so this will be one recipe we will have more often, especially in the fall and over the winter. Do give this recipe a try, I’m sure you will enjoy it.

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 cup barley
• 2 handfuls dry Shiitake mushrooms
• 6 cups water
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 stalk celery, minced
• 1/2 cup sherry
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4-5 twigs fresh thyme chopped

Directions:

1. Bring 5 cups water to the boil.
2. Add dry mushrooms.
3. Let them soak for an hour.
4. While you let the mushrooms soak, slice the celery into small pieces.
5. In a small pot, boil the remaining water.
6. Add the peeled garlic cloves and chopped celery and boil until tender, around 15 minutes.
7. Pour the garlic, celery, and boiling water into a blender.
8. Blend until smooth.
9. After the mushrooms are done soaking, remove from the water, squeezing out and reserving the excess liquid.
10. Bring the water used for soaking to a boil and add barley.
11. Dice the shiitake mushrooms.
12. Add mushrooms, blended celery/garlic liquid, sherry, and soy sauce and thyme to the pot with the barley.
13. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat.
14. Simmer covered until the barley is tender, around an hour.
15. You may need to add more liquid as the barley will continue to soak it up.
16. Serve hot with freshly ground black pepper and thyme to taste.