Recipe: Wheatberry Salad

ICE culinary students learn a variety of different words, including interesting ingredients and new techniques. This recipe for Wheatberry Salad is a good example of some of the new words ICE students learn while studying the culinary arts. Wheatberries are the entire wheat kernel (except for the hull), similar to rice or barley. Concassé is a term referring to the technique of roughly chopping to a small dice. In the case of tomatoes, it refers to tomatoes that have been peeled and had the seeds removed before being chopped.

Ingredients

Salad

• 4 ounces wheatberries
• 14 fluid ounces water
• 8 ounces tomato concassé
• 2 stems scallions, finely chopped
• 2 ounces pitted and sliced black olives

Dressing 

• 1 fluid ounce sherry vinegar
• 3 fluid ounces canola oil
• 1/2 ounce minced parsley
• 1/2 ounce finely chopped mint Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions 

Makes 4 servings

1. Rinse and drain the wheatberries. Place them in a saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Partially cover the saucepan and simmer until the wheatberries are tender approximately 1 hour.
2. Check the water level in the saucepan to ensure the wheatberries have not boiled dry. When the wheatberries are tender, drain and transfer them to a stainless steel bowl and allow them to cool.
3. Combine the cooled wheatberries with the tomatoes, scallions and black olives. Toss to mix.
4. Whisk the sherry vinegar and canola oil in a stainless steel bowl. Add the parsley and mint. Toss the wheatberries with the dressing as needed. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.