This Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Beets and Curry Cashew Dressing is a delicious melange of sweet, savory, tangy flavors and crunchy, chewy and smooth textures.
Cooked to the right consistency, wheat berries are nutty and slightly chewy with a texture that satisfies and a flavor that is incredibly satisfying. Here's a simple but absolutely divine wheat berry salad with roasted beets and a curried cashew dressing. It's one of my favorite brown bag lunches, although I could eat it any time of day.
To say this is a simple recipe is not quite true because, really, it's not a recipe at all. All you do is throw a few ingredients together and toss them in the flavorful dressing. The beets, roasted to perfection, are rich and meaty and tender and sweet. The pecans are crunchy and nutty. The cranberries are sweet and tart and hold on to the winter that never was. And the dressing-- a five-ingredient wonder of cashews, curry powder, turmeric, sriracha, and lemon -- is good enough to eat out of the blender by the spoonful.
The wheat berries are so nutritious, and they are easily cooked in a saucepan on the stovetop or in a pressure cooker, if you have one. I like using the pressure cooker, just because it makes short work of an otherwise slightly lengthy process. I also like that the pressure cooker makes the berries submit to a slightly more tender texture than you could easily -- or quickly -- achieve in a saucepan.
Love beets? Try these recipes for roasted golden beets, vegan garlic butter beets and beet curry.
Recipe card
Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Beets and Curry Cashew Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups wheat berries (soaked overnight)
- 6 beets
- ½ cup pecans (lightly roasted)
- ¼ cup cranberries
- 2 tablespoon golden raisins
- ½ cup kalamata olives (optional)
- ¼ cup parsley (chopped)
For the curry cashew dressing:
- ½ cup cashews (soaked for at least 30 minutes, then drained)
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (adjust according to your taste)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Cook the wheat berries. Rinse the berries and then place in a saucepan with 4 cups of water and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, cover, then cook over a simmer for an hour or until the berries are tender but still slightly chewy. If using a pressure cooker, add 4 cups of water and cook for three whistles. Drain the cooked wheat berries before using.
- To roast the beats, start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. You can either peel the beets before roasting or after. I tend to prefer the after method because the skins come off more easily. Roast the beets on a baking sheet for 35-40 minutes. Turn over once halfway through cooking. The beets are tender when you can pierce the center with a fork easily. Remove the beets from the oven, let them cool, and then cut into ½-inch cubes.
- Make the dressing by placing all ingredients in a blender with ½ cup water. Blend until very smooth.
- Place the wheat berries, cranberries, raisins, olives if using, pecans, and parsley in a large bowl and toss together. Add the beets at the end, because they will color everything a deep red (including your fingers, so wear gloves if you must). Drizzle on the dressing and serve.
Nutrition Information
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Andreas says
This is the first time I've enjoyed a wheat berry recipe. I've been looking for an interesting way to eat wheat berries for a long time. The curry cashew dressing was what did it for me. I also blended some sunflower seeds in the dressing for extra nuttiness. Thank you for sharing!
Ruth Eisenbud says
I always enjoy reading about the exploits of your dogs and Jay & the recipe looks very balanced and tasty, but I object to your description of beets as meaty. If I understood beets to be meaty, I would not eat them. Why must we always justify good healthy vegan ingredients as meaty? This somehow implies that meaty is good, beety is wimpy, rabbit food, not fit for carnivores. I love beets not because they are meaty, but because they have a nice sweetness that is not overwhelming. They combine with a number of other vegetables to make very tasty meals.
We must shift away from the 'meat is good' paradigm. If we abandon this paradigm, we can begin to appreciate and enjoy vegetables on their own merit.
Lawdida says
I think she’s talking about the texture and chewiness—and filling.
Btw, any thoughts in using semi-pearled farro instead of wheat berries as that’s what I have.