A Med-inspired hippie bowl

Remember back in this post when I shared all the different grain & green bowl combo ideas that I could come up with off the top of my head?

Creating hippie bowls is like a sixth sense I have. I swear, I can do it in my sleep.

This one is similar to one of the Mediterranean inspired bowls that I mentioned in that post, with a few tweaks…

So now let me share!

Med-inspired hippie bowl

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches of kale, de-stemmed and chopped
• 1 – 1 1/2 cups barley
• 1 can (1 1/2 cups) chickpeas
• 1/3 cup golden raisins
• 1/3 cup pistachios
• 4 oz halloumi cheese, fried
• apple cider vinaigrette (recipe below)

Apple cider vinaigrette

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt
• fresh pepper (to taste)

Directions:

First, make the barley using a 2:1 ratio of water to grain and cook until plump, soft and chewy.

Next prep the kale and dressing and massage them together in a large serving bowl.

To fry the halloumi, slice into thin strips and place in a greased hot skillet letting them sear and get very well browned on one side before flipping onto the next side. If they stick, let them sear longer because the char will eventually help it separate.

Mix the barley, chickpeas, pistachios, and golden raisins into the massaged kale.

Before serving, top with fried cheese.

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Of course feel free to sub as you want…I love barley so much with this but brown rice or farro (or whatever grain) would be great.

Similarly, you could use chopped dried apricots for the golden raisins, lentils for the chickpeas, sunflower seeds for the pistachios…I could go on and on.