Fresh Barley Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup pearled barley
1 red/yellow/orange pepper, minced
1 red onion, minced
1 celery stalk, minced
5-6 mint leaves, minced
2-3 tomatoes, minced
2-3 radishes, minced
any other veggie you’d like to add, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin

Instructions:

Rinse the pearled barley and add to heavily salted boiling water to cook. Lower the temperature and cook at a simmer for almost an hour. Make sure you have plenty of water to cook the barley in, since much of it will evaporate.

After the barley is cooked (it should be a tiny bit al-dente), remove from the stove and rinse it under cold water to stop the cooking and cool it off.

Place all the minced veggies into a bowl along with the cooked barley and add the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and cumin. Mix all the ingredients and serve or refrigerate.