This wheatberry currant salad is a chewy, cinnamony sweet grain salad filled with tart currants and tossed with an orange honey dressing.
I’ve learned a few things from joining a CSA this year.
So far:
Organic, non-pesticide ridden fruit is about 3 times smaller than the stuff you buy in stores. It’s also about 3 times more tasty.
Sheep make a hell of a lot of noise.
Apparently, I eat about 4 times the amount a family of 4 does if 4 leaves of kale are considered a “bunch”.
People that work at CSAs/farms are exactly what you picture in your head. Flannel shirts, no makeup, quirky and extremely nice.
Currants actually exist in a form other than “dried”.
Who knew?
Ok, I guess I knew but honestly, I’ve never in my life actually seen them in a grocery store. Guess they’d rather stock the shelves with steroid pumped strawberries instead.
These blueberry lookalikes came last week for the first time and I was at an absolute loss at what to do with them. At first, I thought they were too tart to eat raw but the thought of turning them into a sweetened jam or sauce seemed like too boring and predictable of a route.
So I kept eating them one by one, hovering over the sink until I decided on a classic fruit + grain salad. To offset the tartness of the raw fruit, I’d sweeten and spice up the grain.
What resulted was a partially acceptable breakfast salad, a quirky dinner side salad or an excellent snack over plain yogurt. Take your pick.
Chewy, tart, sweet and minty.
It’s an eclectic little salad which seems totally appropriate considering it’s quirky, flannel loving origin.
For more chewy grain salads like this try these recipes
Bulgur salad — the sweet and tangy orange Dijon dressing makes this side dish or salad hard to put down.
Strawberry tabbouleh — another salad that uses bulgur wheat as the grain offering a sweet twist to a traditionally savory recipe.
Wheat berry salad — if you love wheat berries, this salad is the recipe that started this blog and still one of my favorites to make for a summer cookout.
Wheatberry Currant Salad
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup cooked wheatberries
- 1 cup fresh currants
- 4 leaves of mint, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- juice of 1/2 an orange
- 1 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Combine wheatberries, currants, pecans, mint and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the orange juice and honey.
- Pour the dressing over the the wheatberry mixture and toss to combine.
- Serve room temperature or chilled.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
I have about a gagillion current berries and idk what to do with them. P and I have just been eating them off the bush. I can’t believe your CSA had some so cool!
I can’t wait to join CSA! Your salad sounds fabulous!
I have never tried wheatberries but I keep seeing these amazing recipes being posted! I need to try them. I love all of the ingredients you have in this salad! Mint makes things so refreshing, especially in the summer!
you use the coolest grains and incorporate the coolest flavors. hands down. winner!
Awesome! I actually have these on a tree in our yard. Or is it a bush. I have no idea because I don’t usually do anything with them. We eat and few and that’s it. I gotta try something like this when they’re ready. Looks yummy!
Think I’d like this but can’t make it because.. no currents. Bet if I subbed dried currents or blue berries it would sweeten the wheatberries.
Ok you have solved a mystery for me. I get this perfect protein salad at the local grocery store here and was stumped about one of the main ingredients. I even put a plea out a LONG time ago on instagram for someone to help me figure out what they were….looks like they are wheatberries. They look exactly the same. Thank you for solving this mystery for me. I will now call you Detective Gina…solving food mysteries left and right. :) (I obviously haven’t had my afternoon caffeine)
haha! glad I could help ;)
I have never been able to find currants at my stores either! But, now I really want to after seeing this!
when I joined a CSA I realized just how modified and altered grocery store food is…it’s HUGE compared to what grows naturally, no chemicals or genetic tweaking! your fruit comment in the opening, so true!