Wheat Berry Salad with Kale & Roasted Squash

In the last year we have become parents to two beautiful children.  Being that they were a little bit older when they came to us, we weren’t really expecting to be up all night.  Recently that has changed as one of them has decided that waking at 3:30 every morning and staying up for the duration is a good decision.   For weeks I sat up with him, but last night I decided to be productive when he finally said he could play alone in his room for a bit.  I was able to prep all the ingredients for this amazing lunch.  Cooking is so much easier (for me) when things are prepped and ready to go.  It feels like less effort for good results.  And….it makes a sleepless night seem a little less frustrating.

Ingredients:

2 Cups of Wheat Berries

Kale (about three to four cups cut rough)

1 Butternut squash (cubed and roasted)

Flat Leaf Parsley

1 Shallot (diced)

2 Cloves of Garlic (diced)

2T of Sage Leaves (chopped rough)

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Dry White Wine

I began by pre-heating the oven to 400 f. Toss the diced squash in a bowl with salt and pepper and then layer onto an edged baking sheet. Cook for 25-30 minutes.

While that was cooking I added two cups of wheat berries to a saucepan and covered them with about five cups of water and a teaspoon of salt.  These were covered and brought to a boil – about 25 minutes.

Remove the kale leaves from the stem and roughly cut them into bite size pieces.  Add them to the wheat berries after the 25 minutes are up- cover and remove from heat.  They will steam themselves for five minutes.  Be sure to drain them well after the five minutes are up.

Add the squash to the wheat berries and kale and mix through.

In a frying pan add 2T of olive oil and cook the diced shallot about five minutes.  Add the chopped sage, cooking for one minute.  Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.  At this point add 1/3 cup of dry white wine.  After four weeks of not sleeping through the night it was a challenge to add the wine instead of drinking it!!!

Add this mixture to the wheat berries, squash and kale.  Season with salt and pepper.  Lunch is ready to go.  This can be served warm or cold.  When it was first cooked the sweet squash was a really nice contrast to the other wintry flavors.  I am looking forward to having it for my lunch later today…that is…if I am not fast asleep!