Barley, kale, carrots, mushrooms and beet salad

My boyfriend and I, well mainly my boyfriend, made a delicious meal this evening.  It come out of the random things we had in our fridge and my boyfriend's apparent love of barley.  Barley is something we don't use that often.  The only thing we have ever made with it, well again my boyfriend does the work, is slow cooker vegan cabbage rolls.  Barley is a great source of fiber, vitamins B3 and B1, and iron.

1 cup of barley, cooked
4 medium beets, wrapped in foil and baked in over for an hour at 400 degrees
3 medium carrots, chopped
1 cup of mushrooms, chopped
2 cups of kale, washed and ripped into bite sized pieces

Dressing:
4 tablespoons oil (olive or other favourite oil)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook the barley and the beets at the same time as they take around the same amount of time to cook.  You can do this the night before and stored in fridge.  Once the beets are cool enough to handle remove the skin and chop into pieces.  Heat oil in a pan on medium heat.  Cook mushroom and carrots until almost cooked and throw in the kale.  Cook until kale begins to wilt.

Add the barley and beets.  Toss with dressing.

This recipe is simple and surprisingly delicious! My boyfriend was amazed at how tasty this was.  He usually likes spicy meals with lots of complex flavours.  This is a beautiful and clean dish that is a good change from our regular meals.  I plan on making this again in the future.  I think it will also be good using a variety of different veggies.  It will be a good way to use up old vegetables in your fridge.

Enjoy!

M