Orange Wheatberry Salad

Last week I promised a recipe to use your new orange segmenting skills, and here it is!

As spring comes rolling in early this year, I'm both grateful and dismayed. Grateful because I love the warmer weather, going for runs without bundling up like the kid from A Christmas Story, and because spring always feels like a time of renewal (Cheesy? Sure, but also true.) I'm dismayed because springtime also means wicked allergies.

In any case, spring also means the beginning of great produce. Farmer's markets won't start for another few months here, but produce at the grocery becomes much less expensive and more local. It's the flavors of fresh fruits and vegetables that I really associate with warm weather, and I'm always looking for that freshness. This salad brings that freshness, taking advantage of the end of citrus season to ease the transition into spring.

Wheatberries are the whole grain form of wheat - these are what is ground to produce whole wheat flour. They are sweet, chewy and nutty, with a great "pop" in the mouth. You could probably make this salad with other cooked whole grains, like farro, but I like wheatberries here.

This is a great salad to make on Sunday for weekday lunches - just portion the leftovers into individual servings in the refrigerator, and grab and go! You'll probably want to pair this with a protein to make a complete meal.

Orange Wheatberry Salad
For a step-by-step guide to segmenting oranges, see this tutorial.
Yield: 8 1-cup servings

INGREDIENTS
2 cups uncooked wheat berries
Salt and pepper to taste
4 oranges
Zest and juice of one small lemon
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 large carrots, grated (about 2 cups)
1/4 c raisins
3-4 green onions, trimmed and sliced (about a heaping 1/4 cup)

DIRECTIONS
1. Cook the wheatberries. There are two methods you can use for this: stove top or slow cooker.
a. Stove top method: Soak berries in cold water for 8 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse the berries and place in a large pot. Cover by several inches of salted water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer until berries are tender and some break open, about an hour. Drain well and set aside to cool.
b. Slow cooker method: Place 2 cups of wheatberries, a pinch of salt, and 8 cups of water in the crock of a slow cooker (at least 3.5 quart size) and cover. Cook on high heat for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours until berries are tender and some break open. Drain well and set aside to cool. (Adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook.)
2. Zest oranges over a large bowl. Segment the oranges, and add the juice from the remaining membranes. Add lemon zest and juice, oil, salt and pepper and whisk to make a dressing.
3. Add cooled wheat berries and toss. Add orange segments, carrots, raisins, and green onions and toss again, or arrange for serving.

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Meatless Mondays: Weeknight Calzones

 You don't have to order delivery or settle for frozen to have great food on a weeknight. With a small amount of forethought and a bit of preparation, you can make weeknight dinners that are as good as delivery, arrive on the table quicker, and are better for your health.

These calzones require a bit of advanced planning, because they use frozen pizza dough. I suggest preparing a few batches of our favorite pizza dough, freezing them in individual rounds (each recipe yields two dough rounds, or two pizzas), so you can thaw them for weeknight use. With the dough already prepared, these take about 30 minutes to get on the table. 

Calzones are great because they are so easily and endlessly customizable. Each one can have totally different fillings, making it a great choice for people with different preferences. They're also a great way to use up leftovers, when you have a quarter of a bell pepper, a handful of mushrooms, two bites of spinach, and no idea what to do with it. Here I propose a veggie version of the hearty handpie, but meats are certainly a common filling option as well. Feel free to experiment!

I used parsley from our windowsill garden in these. It tastes much stronger than the parsley from the store (which usually tastes like almost nothing...), so a little went a long way. 

As I have made them, these are vegetarian (cheese being decidedly un-vegan). There is a moderate amount of cheese in the filling; if you like very cheesy things, add some extra mozzarella on top of the veggies before sealing up the calzone.

Weeknight Calzones
These are easy to customize, and each individual calzone can have different fillings. Use any vegetables or meats you like. 
Yield: 4 individual sized calzones

INGREDIENTS
1/2 recipe whole wheat pizza dough (or one pizza's worth of dough of your choice)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded asiago or parmesan cheese
a tablespoon or two of chopped fresh herbs (parsley, basil, oregano, etc.)
Veggies of choice for filling, or:
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 cup sliced spinach leaves
Pizza sauce, to serve

DIRECTIONS
1. Thaw the pizza dough if frozen. (You can do this in the microwave, at 50% power, in 30 second increments until the dough is about room temperature.)
2. Place a pizza stone on a rack at the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
3. Combine ricotta, mozzarella, asiago or parmesan cheeses and fresh herbs in a bowl and stir to combine.
4. Divide dough into 4 portions. Working with one portion at a time, roll out the dough into a roughly circular shape. (If your dough is sticking too much, lightly flour your work surface. I usually don't find this necessary.)
5. Spread 1/4 of the cheese mixture onto one half of the dough round (leaving a border, as pictured), and add desired toppings (but make sure you don't add so many you can't close the calzone!). Fold the un-topped half of the dough over the toppings and pinch the edges together tightly.
6. Poke some holes in the top of the calzone with a fork (so steam can escape).
7. Place the calzones on the pizza stone (or use a baking sheet) and bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. 
8. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, and serve with pizza sauce.

Don't forget to check out the Meatless Mondays page for more great vegetarian and vegan meal ideas!

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Sprouts and Lemon Tahini Dressing

The time had come to clear out some sprouts from our windowsill garden. As I mentioned in that post, I planted some more seeds a few weeks ago, and they have been growing wild ever since! It had gotten to the point that they were starting to choke each other out, fighting for light, so I intervened. With scissors and a salad fork.

This bowl included broccoli sprouts, spinach sprouts, tom thumb lettuce sprouts, swiss chard sprouts, and mezclun micro greens (which the seed packet tells me has 6 kinds of lettuce; I haven't tried to count!).

To top my salad of baby sprouts, I wanted a fresh, spring-like dressing. Something simple, but with big flavor. This lemon-tahini dressing had been lingering in the back of my mind, so I decided to bring it to reality and see if it was as good as I thought it would be. And it was.

The recipe as written produces dressing for a single salad. You could certainly make a larger amount at once if you like.  I don't know how well it would refrigerate, but if you make a larger batch, let me know. I like it as a last minute toss-together dressing to finish off a simple salad.

Creamy Lemon Tahini Dressing
Yield: about 1 1/2 tbsp dressing, for one small salad

INGREDIENTS
Juice of 1/4 lemon, about 1 tbsp
2 tsp tahini
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp coriander
pinch each salt and fresh ground pepper

DIRECTIONS
Combine ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until creamy and smooth. Enjoy over whatever salad you like.

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