Garden Vegetable Kamut Bean Salad

 

Its Friday and I am ready to chillll out. Yesterday was a crazy day and when I finally sat down for a second in the evening, I did NOT want to get back up. I could just feel all the blood rushing to my legs after standing and running around all day. Needless to say I slept well and have been taking it easy-ish today..and wearing the same shirt as yesterday. But we wont go there.

This weekend I have lots of family coming over and I wanted to be prepared with some good food that I could just take out and have it ready. Yesterday I put a bunch of kamut into the slow cooker, filled with water and set on low to cook throughout the day. This morning, I took the prepared kamut and made a quick vegetable-bean salad that will be perfect as a side dish, or even as a complete meal.

Garden Vegetable Kamut-Bean Salad

This salad would make a perfect dish for a labor day party this weekend! It also is perfect for leftovers so you have a quick +  delicious snack or meal ready to go. Vegan/vegetarian friendly, full of seasonal vegetables and flavored with garden herbs and a light balsamic herb dressing.

Set your kamut (or any  desired grain grain- spelt, wheat berries, buckwheat, millet, etc) into a large bowl and season with salt. Then, prepare your vegetables.

I cut corn off from the cob and sauteed it in some olive oil, salt and pepper. I also chopped up fresh tomatoes and roasted them for about 40 minutes with salt and pepper. Seasoning each layer is key so that the flavors can get distributed evenly throughout the salad.

Drain and rinse your beans of choice. I used a can of kidney beans and a can of chickpeas.

And prepare an other vegetables you have on hand (I used red pepper, cucumber, mushrooms, corn, tomatoes, red onion and red cabbage). I minced the red cabbage in for color + flavor + crunch.
Mix in the vegetables and season with salt + pepper + chopped herbs. I used basil, tarragon, garlic chives, and parsley.

Prepare a light herb dressing and toss to taste. Keeping it light, I simply whisked different vinegars (pomegranate, rice, and balsamic) with olive oil and herbs and tossed it into the salad. 

 

And for my non vegans: top with crumbled goat cheese. SO good.

Since I’m staying away from grains and beans these days, I won’t be enjoying this lovely dish, but you bet I’ll be having plenty of these:

The daily salad beast.

Any plans this labor day weekend? I’ll be with family and friends Sat&Sun, and working Monday. Nurses don’t get holidays, but we get time and a half, wooo! Enjoy your weekend