Middle Eastern Barley and Brown Lentil Salad

 I've been trying to keep a balance between sweet and savoury recipes on the blog to give you a bit of variety. It's so easy to post desserts because they always look so pretty for the camera and it always seems to be more of an experiment to make otherwise sugary, floury, buttery recipes a bit healthier.

Today I'm giving you the 'B Salad'- Brown lentil, Barley and Broccoli (plus a few other letters of the alphabet chucked in there.) This salad has a bit of a Middle Eastern feel to it with the dried fruit, pomegranate molasses and spices.
This salad acts as a whole meal in itself. It covers all bases- a protein, something crunchy, something sweet, something sour and something green! 

The Ingredients:
*this is really a 'do-it-how-you-like' kind of salad. Find what you have in the fridge and pantry and go wild. If you cover the bases i mentioned before, you'll probably nail it*

1 cup cooked barley, cooled
1 400g tin brown lentils or 1 cup fresh green or brown lentils- boiled and cooled
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp sumac
2 tsp ground cumin
1 bunch parsley finely chopped
1 bunch mint finely chopped
1/4 cup sultanas or currants
 Half a broccoli- florets cut small and blanched
7-8 sugar snap peas cut small
1 big handful baby spinach leaves salt and pepper to taste
juice of one big, juicy lemon
big drizzle pomegranate molasses
good drizzle olive oil  (good applies to the drizzle and the oil)
1/4 cup pumpkin and sesame seeds toasted

 Bring 1 cup of barley in about 2 cups of water to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until soft, but firm. You still want the barley to hold a nice texture in the salad. Drain any excess water and rinse under cold water to cool. Do the same with your lentils if using fresh.
Combine the barley and lentils in a large bowl with the spices, herbs and sultanas.
Place the brocoli in boiling water for about 30 seconds and transfer in to ice water to stop the cooking process. Add broccoli to the salad with sugar snap peas and spinach.
Add lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper.
Give the salad a good drizzle of pomegranate molasses and toss well.
Sprinkle with toasted seeds and serve!

Halfway through enjoying my salad I forgot that i wanted to add soft goats cheese. If you're keen. Try this salad with some goats cheese or feta!

YUM!