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Mixed Grain Summer Salad with Grilled Vegetables

I had some mixed grains left over (barley, black rice and red quinoa) and so I put them together into a salad with baby courgettes from the garden, tomatoes, peppers, mange tout… everything seasonal The fresh pesto really makes it. M & S sell a fresh pesto which is quite nice but not as good as freshly made. I hope you like it…

Take a handful of pearl barley rinsed in cold water and pop it in a pot and cover it with water. Place a lid on the pot to shorten the cooking time. Lower the heat to a simmer and wait for 20 minutes until the beads of barley are soft but not chewy to bite.

Take a handful of black rice and do as above. Black rice should be cooked in a separate pan as it colours the water and everything it comes in contact with. Finally, place four tablespoons of quinoa in a pan of water, as above, but limit the cooking time to 12 minutes once the water has come to the boil. Little white tails emerge from the seed coat as quinoa seeds cook and indicated when it’s ready to eat. It should be a little bit crunchy!

To complete your salad, mix together a selection of roast vegetables – slow roast tomatoes work really well; put a chopped yellow courgette in the oven too. Then flame roast peppers and steam some purple mange tout if you can get hold of them – luckily I’ve got some in the garden at the moment! Finally assemble the whole lot – mix the grains together with a tiny drizzle of oil,lemon juice and salt. Add the cooled roast veg and dot the whole lot with pesto – make yourself, or cheat and buy some from M&S!

Find more of my recipes go to www.joanransley.co.uk