No more limp lettuce salads for us! This nutritious three grain salad with crunchy vegetables is dressed with garlic oil and served up with a simple roasted pepper sauce. It is filling, satisfying and easily adapted to suit the seasons. Perfect at home or packed up for a lunchtime taste of sunshine! 

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Grain Salads

I love grain salads, they are filling without being bloating, tick lots of nutritional boxes and (this is the important bit) they taste delicious!

This one contains wheat grain, pearled spelt and brown rice along with some lovely crunchy vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh herbs. It is simply dressed with garlic oil and served with an easy roasted pepper sauce.

It’s great for picnics, barbecues and summery packed lunches. It works fabulously as a side dish with falafel, roasts or burgers. Or eat it, simply, on its own for supper in the garden. There is no occasion really when this doesn’t work – maybe not as a dessert, but that’s about it!

The beauty of a salad like this is that you can really make it your own. If you don’t like pearl barley swap it for beluga lentils or quinoa. If you don’t want to use brown rice use wild rice, basmati or a mix of both.

This super easy mixed grain salad is great for using up those bags of grains you have leftover at the back of the cupboard, go wild! Just remember to adjust the cooking times according to the packet instructions – no  one wants gloopy rice or claggy spelt grain in a salad! 

Vegetable Salad Recipes

When I was little a salad was always lettuce, tomato and cucumber. If we went to my Aunty Ann’s we also got spring onions and fresh herbs from her garden which I thought was AMAZING! There was usually a jar of pickled beetroot, maybe some potato salad and mayonnaise drenched coleslaw. It was a rare occasion when any other vegetable appeared in the salad bowl!

With so many seasonal vegetables now readily available to me on the high street and in my weekly veg box I’m spoilt for choice! Most of them turn up in mixed salads throughout the year along with handfuls of herbs and spicy flavourings. I love a good traditional vinaigrette but I ring the changes with balsamic dressing, something mustardy or something like this simple red pepper sauce.

Switch the vegetables about according to what is available in season, jazz it up with whichever herbs you have to hand or spice it up with some chilli or hot sauce – there’s absolutely no reason not to make this three grain salad in winter with roasted squash, sprouts and red onions!

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

The roasted pepper sauce I used here is one I make almost weekly because it is fab with so many dishes and takes seconds to make. I serve it up with falalfels, burgers and roasts and alongside vegetable tarts, quiches and pies. It is also absolutely irresistible, instead of the inevitable ketchup, with chips!

It is easy to make from scratch in red pepper season by scorching the peppers under the grill until the skin is blackened. Pop the cooked peppers into a plastic bag, seal it and allow them to cool completely. The skins will just slip off.

Alternatively, cheat a bit as I have and use the ready cooked and peeled jarred peppers! Simple!

If You Have Been Bitten By The Salad Bug…

You might like these:

• Curried Beluga Lentil Salad
• Crunchy Green Salad with Broad Beans and Mint
• Orange Fennel and Avocado Salad
• Roast Pumpkin and Fresh Fig Salad
• Grilled Vegetable Salad
• Black Quinoa and Spiced Chickpea Salad
• Beetroot Coleslaw
• Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Sweet Pepper Salad
• Wild Rice and Asparagus Salad with Lemon Thyme and Sumac

If you make my recipe I’d love to hear how it turns out for you. Please leave a comment and a star rating below and share your pictures with me on social media. Tag me @thinlyspread and include the hashtag #thinlyspread so I can see them!

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Three Grain Salad with a Roasted Pepper Dressing

A summery three grain salad with crunchy vegetables dressed with garlic oil and served up with a simple roasted pepper sauce. 

5 from 8 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Lunch, Salad

Cuisine: vegan

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 310kcal

Author: Chris Mosler | Thinly Spread

Ingredients

SALAD

• 75 g wheat grain*
• 75 g pearled spelt
• 75 g brown rice
• 75 g flat green beans sliced very thinly on the diagonal
• 75 g carrots julienned
• 50 g spring onions sliced very thinly on the diagonal
• 25 g flat leaved parsley finely chopped
• 4 sun dried tomatoes in oil drained and finely chopped
• salt and black pepper to taste

GARLIC OIL DRESSING

• 2 cloves garlic peeled and bashed with the flat of a knife
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• juice of half a lemon
• salt and black pepper

ROASTED PEPPER DRESSING

• 1 jarred roasted pepper drained
• 1/2 cup passata
• 2 tsps red pesto

UK Measurements - US Measurements

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Instructions

• Cook the wheat grain in a large pan of boiling water for 45 - 55 minutes until tender but with bite, drain and refresh under cold running water.
• At the same time cook the spelt in pan of boiling water for 20 minutes and the rice in another pan for 25 minutes until both are tender, drain and refresh under cold running water.
• Cook the sliced flat beans in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes, drain and refresh under cold running water.
• Heat the olive oil gently in a pan, add the whole squashed garlic and fry very gently for two minutes until fragrant, leave to cool. Add the lemon juice and a little salt and pepper, whisk to combine.
• Combine the rice, spelt, wheat grain, carrots, cooked beans, spring onions, parsley, sun dried tomatoes and garlic dressing in a large bowl.
• Blend the roasted pepper, passata and pesto together, pour into a small bowl and serve with the rice salad.

Notes

Nutritional information is only an approximate guideline. Calculations will vary according to the ingredients you use and your cooking methods.

*Wheat grain is sometimes sold as wheat berries in whole food stores.

Nutrition

Calories: 310kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 63mg | Potassium: 607mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 5058IU | Vitamin C: 59mg | Calcium: 57mg | Iron: 3mg

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