This week we are cooking with a mixture of various beans, lentils, yellow split peas, chickpeas and bulgur wheat. Produced in organic farms in northern Greece, they are ideal to turn into a hearty soup. But we prefer to save soups for winter days.
This week we are using handfuls of this nutritious mixture of pulses to create a filling salad. You often ask what is the inspiration behind our recipes. Often, it is the desire to use everything that we have in our fridge and cook with no waste. It is a philosophy many of our chefs share and first and foremost, Lia. Lia is one of our favourite Greek chefs. She is passionate about quality and low impact food and is part of a collaborative food pop-up focussing on food waste reduction. You can meet and cook with her in our November Wasteless Greek Cooking Workshop.
So in this case, we had small bunches of herbs left from last week’s bulgur salad. We store our fresh herbs in small jars with water, like you would with flowers. That way they last longer. But their time had come. So we decided to whiz them with plenty of olive oil and voila, our salad was born! Some pistachios for added saltiness and crunch and there you have it.
This is a salad that takes a bit of time to make. But it’s perfect for the end of the summer, as you can slowly cook the beans, slowly shell the pistachios and generally it requires no rush. And as September is just around the corner, we can spend the last days of summer at a slower pace.
Serves 4 as a side
100g mixed grains & pulses (we used beans, lentils, yellow split peas, chickpeas and bulgur)
a small bunch of parsley
a small bunch of dill
a small bunch of coriander
1 bag of roasted and slightly salted pistachios
½ cup olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
The night before put the beans and chickpeas in cold water to soak. The morning after, drain and place all grains and pulses in a pot with fresh water. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and cook until tender, around 1-2 hours. Drain and set aside to cool.
Roughly chop all the herbs and place in a blender with the olive oil and vinegar. Blend everything together, until you get a smooth paste.
Gently mix together the beans and herb mixture.
Shell and crush the pistachios and toss into your salad.
Serve at room temperature.
