‘Tis the season to still be obsessed with zucchini. And salads full of delightful green things. This one is such a winner, it’s ful of flavour and texture and is just stupidly easy to throw together. You can have it as a main meal or add your choice of protein. The options are endless I tell you, endless!

The first time I made this salad was a bit of a fluke. My friend had invited me over to dinner to play ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’ with the ingredients in her fridge. We usually just do this via text message, she tells me what’s in her fridge and I suggest things she could make. But this time she lured me over with this organic orange wine and together we came up with this delicious salad.

That night we had it with saganaki on the side, which was incredible drenched in lots of lemon. I’ve made it twice more since then. One of those times I ate it as is, and the other with a baked side of salmon and added fresh herbs (parsley and basil), capers and feta to the yoghurt sauce to make it a little fancier. That was also incredible. This might be my new go to grain salad. Well at least while asparagus is super cheap and delicious…

The best thing is it can be thrown together in the time it takes to cook the barley (just over 30 minutes), all the process are super simple and you can actually just stir everything together in the pot you cook the barley in, so dishes are minimal. You all know I like minimal dishes, who actually likes doing dishes? Like, is there someone out there that just lives for the part of the meal where you get to do the dishes. If so, I’ll marry you.

Note: you can make this vegan by using coconut or soy yoghurt.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 cup pearl barley

1 cup almonds

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

2/3 cup spring onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped parsely

1 medium zucchini, finely grated

1 lemon, juice and zest

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp sumac

1/4 tsp paprika

3 radishes, finely sliced

2 x bunches of asparagus, trimmed of woody ends

1/2 cup plain or greek yoghurt

1/4 tsp chilli powder

Sat and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Rinse pearl barley well and combine in a medium pot with 3 cups of water and a pinch of salt. bring to the boil and simmer for 35 minutes or until tender and the water has absorbed.

Place almonds in a single layer on an oven proof tray and roast for 5 minutes, add the seeds and roast for a further 5 minutes or until the sunflower seeds have got a little colour. Allow to cool slightly then roughly chop, making sure all the almonds are chopped but not fussing over the smaller seeds.

Bring a small pot of water to the boil, add the asparagus and blanch for a minute or two. Remove and chop into 2cm pieces.

Mix together the yoghurt and 1/4 tsp chilli powder. Set aside.

One pearl barley is cooked, squeeze the zucchini to remove any excess liquid and add to the pearl barley pot along with the parsley, spring onion, lemon juice and zest, oil, radish, asparagus, seeds, nuts, sumac and 1.4 tsp chilli powder. Mix well using a fork. Check seasoning.

To serve, scoop salad into a large serving bowl, drizzle generously with the yoghurt, serve any extra yoghurt on the side. If the yoghurt sauce is to thick to drizzle then add water a tablespoon at a time until you have a slightly thinner sauce.