Kamut Harvest Salad
Last week, I mentioned the lovely Yom Kippur break fast dinner we had with friends. One of the best dishes we had that night was a refreshing and tangy harvest salad my friend prepared with farro, roasted squash, spinach, craisins, and slivered almonds. The sweet and roasted flavors melded together so perfectly that I was sad when the meal came to an end.
Because I couldn’t get the salad out of my mind, I decided to make it this week for dinner. Whole Foods (shockingly!) didn’t have farro, but I was able to find kamut, another member of the wheat family which cooks up like a sweeter brown rice with a little more of a bite. Despite never having cooked with it before, I thought it had to be a relatively simple process to learn and would still work well with the other salad flavors. The secret to this dish, the original maker divulged, was the use of pomegranate molasses in the dressing. Funnily enough, my brother who spent time in Turkey has been pushing me to incorporate this popular Middle Eastern ingredient into my cooking for a couple of years now, but I never found a dish to really start using it in. It’s natural sweet-sour flavor and gorgeous ruby color went perfectly with the other flavors of this dish.
I paired this room temperature salad with ground lamb medallions, which I will post the recipe for later in the week. Kamut harvest salad also pairs well with roasted chicken and can certainly stand alone as a vegetarian main course. This salad takes a little time to prepare, but all steps are easy and the end product is worth it! Seriously, the leftovers were even tastier than the night before! Enjoy!
Kamut Harvest Salad
2 cups kamut
1 small butternut squash peeled and cut into a medium dice
1 cup craisins
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 cup (handful or so) chopped parsley
1-1 1/2 cups olive oil
1/3 cup or so of apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons or so of pomegranate molasses
1-2 teaspoons cinammon
Salt
Pepper
2 cups baby spinach (optional, I skipped this)
Instructions:
1. Bring 5 1/2-6 cups of water to a boil. Once it’s boiling, add some salt and oil and pour the kamut in.
2. Bring the kamut and water back to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for an hour to an hour and a half, until the kamut is softened, but still has a bite. Taste testing is necessary here
3. While kamut is cooking, heat oven to 400 degrees and put foil on a cookie sheet
4. Toss the butternut squash with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and the dash of cinnamon and put on the foiled cookie sheet. Make sure that the olive oil lightly coats the foil so that nothing sticks
5. Roast the squash for about 30-40 minutes until the squash is tender and evenly roasted. You can turn the squash over halfway through the cooking process for more even browning, but I didn’t.
6. Once the squash is done, let it cool to room temperature
7. When the kamut is done, drain any excess water and pour the kamut into a serving bowl
8. Mix a dressing for the salad of about 1/2 cup olive oil, the apple cider vinegar, the pomegranate molasses, and some salt & pepper (adjust the olive oil amount for your taste)
9. Toss kamut & squash with the dressing and then toss the almonds, parsley, and craisins in. If you are using spinach, add this in too.
10. Taste to see if you need any additional oil, salt, or pepper and serve.
Kamut with Ground Lamb Medallions
