Purple Prairie Barley Salad

 

Until last week, I had never heard of Purple Prairie Barley.  I didn't even know such a thing existed.  I've been eating barley since I was little, but had only ever heard of whole, hulled, pot and pearl barley.  It was at the Bulk Barn last week that I first came across this new (to me) kind of barley.  Since I can never pass up an opportunity to try a new food, I had to buy some and give it a try.  I took it home and got to work on it almost immediately and came up with this barley salad.

 

Here's what I did...

 

 This is what the Bulk Barn has to say about the purple barley.

 And this is what it looks like dry.

I wanted to use it fairly quickly, so instead of soaking it overnight I decided to do the quick-soak method.  I rinsed it several times, covered it with water in a small pot, brought it to the boil, then turned off the heat and covered it for an hour.  Then I changed the water and simmered it until tender.  It lost some of its pretty, purple colour after cooking.

I made a dressing with white balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, whole-grain mustard, Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I rinsed and drained the barley and then added it to the bowl with the dressing.

I added a bunch of chopped green onions

 

and a chopped red pepper.

Then I added some diced English cucumber and chopped yellow grape tomatoes.

I mixed it all together 

and then I thought "hey, an avocado would be nice in this" so I diced one up and added it.  The result was a delicious whole-grain salad.