Beans and Barley are yummy and easy!

I made this Barley and Black Bean Salad from EatingWell.com on Thursday, ate it for lunch and dinner, and gladly ate it for lunch for two more days. It is good both hot and cold (lukewarm, not so much). I had pretty much everything (or close substitutes) on hand, and made this on a whim without buying any ingredients especially for it. 

1 cup barley, cooked according to package directions 

1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed

1/2 cup corn (thawed if frozen)

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine cooked barley, beans, corn, cilantro, lime juice, oil, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper in a medium bowl

I doubled the recipe so as to use the whole bag of barley. I skipped the corn. (I'm not into corn, don't stock it in my pantry or freezer.) My cans of beans were 19 oz. instead of 15. I used flat leaf parsley instead of cilantro because that's what I had. I mixed the spices, lime juice, and olive oil in a mini blender, and pureed the parsley in said blender, making a salad dressing. Though I think the parsley was meant to be in coarsely chopped pieces, adding color to the dish, but I have a short attention span and no food processor, so no way was I going to do that much of that kind of chopping. 

 

My package of barley didn't have cooking directions, just a recipe for stew, so I had to turn to the internet for directions.  In short, barley can be prepared like slow-cooking rice, except it's 2 1/2 to 3 cups of water for each cup for barley. (spiffy directions from ehow.com)

I packed a serving of this dish into plastic ware on Thursday and put it in the freezer. I microwaved it on Saturday afternoon and it was very good.  So, yes, it freezes well. Yet another reason this is a great dish. 

P.S. I made this again, and this time I found a good substitute for the corn: grated carrot. It was delicious, again.