Wheat Berry Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts

1 cup dry wheat berries
3 cups water
sea salt

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice(bottled is fine)
ground pepper
1/c cup dried cranberries
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1.  Rinse wheat berries and drain.  Check for stones.
2.  Put wheat in pot with water and a pinch of salt.
3.  Bring to a boil.
4.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 40 minutes.
5.  Drain and set aside.

While wheat berries are cooking you can work on the rest of the recipe.
1.  Mix together oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and a pinch of pepper.
2.  Add the cranberries, parsley and walnuts.
3.  Add the wheat berries to the mixture and combine well.
4.  Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 3 days.
5.  Serves 6.  Enjoy!

Recipe from YogaJournal magazine Marcdh 2012.  I modified the recipe.  I added the walnuts and excluded 1/4 cup chopped chives.  They also called for 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley but I did not have that so I substituted dried parsley.

Wheat Berry and Lentil Stew

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups green or brown lentils (uncooked, hard and dry)

4 cups vegetable and/or chicken broth (you can use the bouillon cubes.  Just make sure you use a cube for each cup of water, so that would be 4 cups of water and 4 cubes) (Use vegetable if you want the recipe to be vegetarian or vegan)

4 cups water

4 large carrots sliced ( I just scrub my carrots and don't peel them.  Too much waste and work!)

1 large onion diced or cubed depending on preference

1 tsp sea salt (regular cooking salt works fine)

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 cups wheat berries

8 cups coarsely chopped spinach or you can leave it whole

3 Tablespoons lime juice

3 cloves garlic minced (optional)  I omitted it because I can't stand the way I smell after I eat garlic!

Directions

1.  In a large pot combine lentils, wheat berries, broth, and water and bring to a boil over high heat.  

2.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until lentils are tender but not mushy, about 15 minutes.

3.  In large skillet over medium heat add a small of amount of water, carrots, onion, salt and pepper, and garlic if you are using it, stirring occasionally until vegetables start to brown, about 10 minutes. Careful it doesn't burn!

4.  Add  the cooked onions and carrots to the large pot along with the cumin, spinach and lime juice.

5.Simmer for about 5 minutes and serve.

Optional: add browned meat when cooking the carrots and onions.  I would suggest ground turkey as the healthiest option.

I found this recipe on a package of wheat berries from Nature's Earthy Choice Red Winter Wheat Whole Grain Wheat Berries.  As usual, I made some changes.  I like to keep things simple, so I simply when there is no reason to do it a more complicated way I simply make it more simple!