Parsley Salad With Barley, Dill and Hazelnuts

- Total Time
- About 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
- ½cup barley
- Salt
- 4cups fresh parsley leaves
- 3tablespoons chopped dill
- ¾cup thinly sliced celery, from the inner heart of the bunch
- 4radishes, sliced thin (halved first and cut in half moons if they’re large)
- ½teaspoon ground sumac
- 5tablespoons toasted hazelnuts, skinned
- 2 to 3tablespoons fresh lemon juice (to taste)
- ¼cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1tablespoon hazelnut oil or walnut oil
- Freshly ground pepper
Preparation
- Step 1
Bring about 3 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add the barley and salt to taste. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 45 to 50 minutes, until the barley is tender. Drain and return the barley to the pot. Place a towel over the top of the pot and return the lid. Let sit for 15 minutes. Line a sheet pan with paper towels and place the cooked barley on top to cool. When cool, transfer to a large bowl.
- Step 2
Cut the parsley leaves into fine shreds by gathering together a bunch of leaves, and cutting across the bunch with a chef’s knife. Place in the bowl with the barley. Add the dill, celery, radishes and sumac.
- Step 3
Place the toasted skinned hazelnuts in a plastic bag or a pastry bag and place on your work surface. With a rolling pin, roll over the nuts to crush them into halves. Don’t crush them completely (but don’t worry if your pieces are smaller than neat halves). Add to the bowl.
- Step 4
Whisk together the lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, the olive oil and the hazelnut or walnut oil. Toss with the salad and serve.
- Advance preparation: This will keep for a day in the refrigerator, but don't add the hazelnuts until just before serving or they will become soggy.
Private Notes
Comments
It's certainly healthy, but without much flavor. I'm going to add garlic and maybe spring onions.
The hazelnuts will taste a bit better if, after toasting them, you rub them between a kitchen towel to brush their skins off. In this recipe it is not such a big deal.
This is somewhat similar to an Ottolenghi recipe. He adds half a tsp ground allspice to the dressing and a clove of garlic.
A wonderful riff or spinoff on tabbouleh salad. For those wanting garlic and other flavors, or a less parsely-forward salad, then this recipe and traditional tabbouleh are not for you. I personally love tabbouleh salad and so really enjoyed this elaboration/extrapolation. I used italian parsley because that's what I had, but here and for tabbouleh I prefer the curly parsley because it holds up a bit better to the lemon juice. But flat leaf worked perfectly fine.
This was very nice, normally I am crazy for garlics and big flavors, but sometimes I want light and simple. The taste was balanced after salting accordingly. Maybe scallions would add more flavor? This was a salad that I can keep it around for healthy snacking. No complaints from me.