Mediterranean Barley Salad
This Mediterranean Barley Salad is easy to make with cold and warm elements. Roasted veggies & tahini yogurt dressing are incredible!
Salads are a great way to incorporate some fun flavors into your diet while eating healthy. Whoever said salads were boring hasn’t tried this warm vegetable salad! The combination of roasted carrots and snap peas, cooked barley, mint leaves, seasonings, toasted pine nuts, and homemade dressing is seriously going to blow your mind.
In addition to being healthy and tasting great, it’s also stunning! If you are hosting a dinner party or want to take something extra special to a gathering, this is the recipe you need. Everyone will think a chef made it.
Whether you are hosting an event, or just love the flavors of Mediterranean food, I have some amazing recipes for you to try. Pan Fried Halloumi, Chickpea Patties, and Homemade Labneh are all popular dishes here at Silk Road Recipes.
Ingredients For Mediterranean Barley Salad
Be sure to check out the recipe card below to see the entire list of ingredients. It’s printable for your convenience.
- Yogurt: You’ll need some plain Greek yogurt for the sauce. It’s an excellent source of vitamin B6, protein, zinc, and calcium.
- Lemon: To give the dressing the perfect burst of vibrant flavor, lemons are a must.
- Mint Leaves: One of the key ingredients is mint. You’ll need it for the dressing, barley, and as a garnish.
- Tahini: You can pick some up at your local grocer or order it online. I think you are going to love the flavor it brings to the Mediterranean barley salad.
- Barley: You’ll need pearl barley for this recipe. The texture is hard to beat!
- Veggies: You’ll need some whole carrots and some snow peas. They are so delicious and give the dish a terrific crunch.
- Seasonings: Coriander, salt, pepper, cumin, and cardamom are the best spices for the Mediterranean barley salad.
- Pine Nuts: They are crunchy and take the dish to the next level. They are loaded with calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamin E.
- Pomegranate Seeds: Looking to get a boost of fiber and antioxidants? That’s what you’ll get when eating them. Plus, they give some vibrant color too.
HOW TO MAKE THIS WARM VEGETABLE SALAD
1. Make the tahini yogurt dressing.
Combine the yogurt, mint, tahini, water, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a bowl. Mix well and set aside.
2. Cook the grains.
Sprinkle salt to the water and boil it in a large pot. Pour in the barley and cook for 20 minutes or until it’s tender. Drain off the water and place it in a bowl along with mint and olive oil. Toss until combined and cover. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Prepare the veggies.
Trim the carrots and cut them in half. Make sure the pieces are cut in uniform pieces. Add olive oil to a skillet and warm using medium-high heat. Cook the carrots along with the coriander. Continue to cook until they are charred and have become tender. Mix in the snow peas, cumin, cardamom, coriander, and salt. Cook until brown spots form. Combine the veggies to the grains.
4. Toast the pine nuts.
Wipe out the skillet and pour in the pine nuts. Stir them continually until they have turned golden brown, about 2 minutes.
5. Put everything together.
Blend the veggie mixture and pour onto a platter. Drizzle the dressing on top, add the pine nuts, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, and add the fresh mint. Serve and enjoy!
Storage Tips
There are a couple of options for storing leftovers of this Mediterranean Barley Salad. If you are planning on having leftovers, it’s best to assemble what you want to eat right away. Then keep the warm ingredients together and the dressing and garnishes separate. You can quickly warm the veggies and barley in the microwave, then assemble everything.
However, you can also combine everything together and save it in the fridge. Then eat the Mediterranean barley salad cold as leftovers. It tastes just as good when it’s chilled too. Everything will last 3-4 days in the fridge if kept airtight.
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Mediterranean Barley Salad
Ingredients
Tahini Yogurt Sauce
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 lemon (1/2 grated lemon zest plus 2 tablespoons juice)
- 2 tbsp mint leaves minced
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Barley
- 1 cup pearl barley
- 6 cups water
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp mint leaves minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Vegetables
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 lbs small whole carrots peeled and sliced lengthwise
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 8 oz snow peas strings removed
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
Garnish
- 1/4 cup pine nuts toasted
- 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds (arils)
- Tahini Yogurt Sauce (see above)
- Mint leaves
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together the yogurt, lemon zest and juice, mint, tahini, water, salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Bring 6 cups of salted water to boil in large pot. Add barley and return to boil. Cook until tender, 20 minutes. Drain barley, transfer to bowl with the 2 teaspoons of mint and 2 tablespoons olive oil, tossing to combine. Cover to keep warm. Season with salt to taste.
- While barley cooks, trim and halve carrots crosswise, then halve or quarter lengthwise to create uniformly sized pieces. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add carrots and ½ teaspoon coriander and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly charred and just tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in snow peas, salt, cumin, cardamom, remaining ½ teaspoon coriander and cook until spotty brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl with barley.
- Using paper towel, wipe clean now-empty skillet. Add pine nuts and toast to golden brown, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Set aside.
- Toss the barley roasted vegetable mixture to combine and pour onto platter or individual bowls. Drizzle tahini yogurt sauce all over, sprinkle with pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, mint leaves, and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
So good
I am asking you to rack your brain to see if you recognize this recipe. I have tried in vain many times to replicate it here in the US.
I once had a ‘spinach dish’ in a very very dark Mediterranean (?) restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, that was so good! I have searched for it everywhere. I was wondering if you might know of it; the name of it starts with a ‘Z’, but the word naming it is not one of a language that I recognized. It was not a Saag of any kind; there were no Indian flavorings that I could recognize.
The cooked, fresh (?) spinach was served covering the entire salad-size plate. There seemed to be in it: olive oil, dill (?), parsley (?), finely chopped black olives (?), maybe finely chopped Kalamata olives (?), and some other spice/s (?). There was no cheese/white stuff that I could see. The dish was eaten hot, scooped up on warm pita bread as an appetizer. It was wonderful! After we finished off the first serving, we – because no one there knew us – ordered a second serving!
After we ate our entrée, which was not memorable after the spinach dish, there was a belly dancer that performed in the middle of the room. This was a very small ‘restaurant’, down a long flight of stairs, in one of the prefectures there in Tokyo.
I have searched every cookbook I have gotten my hands on for this recipe!!! Would you happen to know what’s in it? Thanks and best wishes! Emily
I wish I could be of more assistance Emily, but it sounds more like a recipe they made for the restaurant. If you ever find out, let me knoW, I’m intrigued.
will be making this soon with few subs will dm you if i make this and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya