Salmon & Wheat Berry Salad

A few weeks ago when I was reading the carbohydrate chapter of my nutrition book, I learned what wheat berries are one of the healthiest, unprocessed grains.  Mendocino Farms used to have an amazing wheat berry salad that was my absolute favorite side salad, but I've never seen wheat berries in the grocery store before.  So learning that wheat berries were full of fiber and nutrients that other grains weren't, I picked up my phone, looked on amazon and ordered some wheat berries.  I can't believe I'd never thought of looking on Amazon for wheat berries, but it was so quick and easy and now I have 5 pounds of wheat berries to cook with.

I love adding grains to my salads, so this simple salad was absolutely delicious.  Paired with a great piece of salmon, this was a meal packed with flavor and nutrients.  As you may already know, I make my own salad dressings pretty much all the time.  I had a shaved brussles sprout salad at a restaurant about a year ago that had a white balsamic dressing that was super tasty.  Ever since then, I've been hooked on making white balsamic vinaigrette's for my salads.  This dressing is similar to the once I made for my shaved brussels salad a few weeks ago, but it subs out the red wine vinaigrette with white balsamic.  It may seem like a small change, but it gives the dressing a very different flavor.

Ingredients:

2 cups wheat berry, cooked

2 cups kale

1 cup snap peas, chopped

1 avocado

1/2 lb salmon, salted on both sides

1 tbs avocado oil

Vinaigrette:

4 tbs olive oil

4 tbs while balsamic vinegar

2 tbs mustard (dijon or whole grain)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Make the vinaigrette by mixing all the ingredients together in an airtight container and shaking to emulsify.
2. Pre-heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add 1 tbs avocado oil.  Once the pan is heated, add the fish skin-side down.  Cook for 3-4 minutes, then flip and cook an additional 2-3 minutes, until cooked through.
3. Remove the salmon from the heat and set aside.
4. Add your kale and chopped snap peas to a medium bowl and toss with vinaigrette.  Add sliced avocado and salmon and drizzle with an additional spoonful of vinaigrette.

This salmon salad was great both warm and cold.  I enjoyed it warm the first night I made it and cold for lunch the next day and it was equally tasty both ways.