Going With The Grain - Too Lazy Wheat Berry Salad

I have been trying to get into cooking with different types of grains. So, when I was hungry yesterday, and feeling too lazy to go to the store, I forage through my pantry for something yummy to cook and what do you think I found, Wheat Berries.

I have eaten them a few times at the Gringe Hall (sigh) and really enjoyed them, but since the restaurant closed I have not given the grain another thought. I decided to make Heidi Swanson's recipe for Wheat Berry Salad that I had been wanting to make for a while now. I flung open Her cookbook, Super Natural Cooking and checked out the ingredients.

2 cups of Wheat Berries
check,
2 teaspoons of Sea Salt
check,
Grated Zest of 1 orange
I opened the fridge, gave it the once over, and found no orange colored citrus inside.
I'll just use a lemon,
1 table spoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
check,
1 table spoon of minced shallots
will a Vedalia Onion do?
1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive oil
check,
3 hanfulls of spinach
I checked the fridge once more and sure enough, no spinach. How about broccoli?
1 cup of toasted pine nuts
I'm sure slived almonds will do,
1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese
One more time, the fridge door swung open...
I couldn't believe it, I had no cheese in the house!

As it turns out I was unable to make Heidi's Wheat Berry Salad due to the fact that I only had two of the nine ingredients needed. Instead I made my own Wheat Berry Salad, inspired by Heidi's. I guess the moral of the story here is, always be ready to improvise with a recipe when you are feeling like too much of a slug to go to the grocery store. You know, laziness is the mother of invention...

Too Lazy to Leave The House Wheat Berry Salad

1 cup of Wheat Berries
3 cups of water
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 stalk of broccoli, lightly steamed and chopped
1/2 vedalia onion diced
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of sesame oil
1/4 cup of slivered almonds
1 teaspoon of sea salt
splash of balsamic

Combine Wheat Berries, water and salt in a large sauce pan and heat over a med-high flame.
Bring to a boil the reduce flame and simmer, covered, until berries become plump - about 45 min.
Drain the wheat berries and toss withe the rest of the ingredients.

(If I wasn't so lazy I would have also added roasted grape tomatoes and feta cheese. YUM.)