Green Bean, Chickpea, and Barley Salad with Toasted Spice Vinaigrette

How about one more word in that title? Geez.

This is going to be a quick one today. I’ve been buried in taxes for the last week, easily powering through 12 hour days. The big crunch is over Monday, but I’ll still be in the 10 hour day range until October 15th. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Have you hugged your accountant lately?

Anyway, this salad. This glorious, glorious salad is made so glorious purely from the vinaigrette.

I’ve never been much of a “toast” anything kind of person really. Toasted nuts. Toasted quinoa. Toasted…toast. I never really did it in any sort of recipe that suggested it. I seriously prefer un-toasted bread 97% of the time [butterless too, please]. I felt like I couldn’t disobey this time. I mean, what’s a toasted spice vinaigrette without toasted spices? Soggy spices probably. Sounds awful awesome.

The salad isn’t a slouch either. It covers all the bases, especially if you grill up some flank steak to go with. The vinaigrette goes great with it, too. All of this came straight from Bon Appétit, and as usual it was all awesome. So good that I definitely made it two nights in a row. The second time solidified my love for all aspects of this salad, but especially the dressing. It’s a smokey little spicy number that is gladly soaked up by the barley and chickpeas and stands up to the punchy bits of feta cheese. The green beans add a little bit of texture in their crisp-tender form. I’ve been using the whole “put all the dressing ingredients in a jar, tightening the lid, and shaking it up. So much easier than my wild whisking that usually ends up on the counter and my shirt more often than not.

Inspiration: Bon Appétit

Ingredients

• toasted spice vinaigrette
• 1/2lb green beans, ends trimmed and then cut in half
• 1 cup pearled barley
• 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed, drained, and those little skins removed
• 4oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans. Cook only for three minutes before removing to an ice bath or a colander to run it under cool water. Keep the pot of water on a boil and add the barley. Drop the heat to a simmer and let it cook until tender. Check your package or at 25-30 minutes. Drain the pot and spread the barley out on a baking sheet so it can dry out a bit.

In a large bowl toss the barley, green beans, chickpeas, feta, dill, and lemon juice. Dress with the vinaigrette. Grill some steak. Enjoy every bite. Tastes great with a bright summery white wine.