No. 290: Einkorn Wheat Berry Salad for Lunch, Loaded Potato Nachos for the Game, Lemon Desserts for Any Time
Plus: Cookbooks for Black History Month, more Super Bowl recipes
🌾 🥣 A make-ahead salad with all the good stuff
Healthier, more interesting lunches? A goal, certainly. And yet they seem to elude me. My planning leaves something to be desired. But a discovery in my pantry (overcrowded Metro shelves in the basement) this weekend gave me a kick in the pants, and voilà, I have a new grain salad that I’m quite enamored with – and one that’s a great make-ahead, too. Having a craving for roasted cabbage – with those charry edges – helped inspire me, as well.
The discovery was a box of einkorn wheat berries (Jovial brand). I’d never cooked einkorn wheat berries, though I am familiar with einkorn wheat – an ancient grain grown 12,000 years ago and never hybridized – because it is now being grown in New England and used by artisan bakers, including some on the Island. Beetlebung Farm (open again after their break) has been using einkorn flour in everything from bread to chocolate chip cookies. It has a nutty, slightly sweet flavor – a bit reminiscent of hazelnuts – and is lower in gluten than modern wheats, making it more digestible.
I assumed that einkorn wheatberries needed soaking like hard wheat berries, and so I did just that, in the fridge overnight. Then I used my handy pasta-style cooking method, and they were done in 25 minutes! But apparently you don’t need to soak them, and cooking time will still only be about 30 minutes. The texture is very pleasant — not as bouncy as hard wheat berries.
My Wheat Berry, Roasted Cabbage, and Toasted Almond Salad with Ginger-Soy-Lemon Dressing (which is vegan, by the way) benefits from a generous amount of crunchy roasty-toasty slivered almonds, plenty of scallions and cilantro, and a lemony-tamari dressing enhanced with crystallized ginger. The roasted cabbage is lovely. In fact, I would add more if I could, but I can only roast one sheet pan of vegetables at a time in my oven, which traps moisture, if I want them to truly get crisp. If you have a convection oven, you could roast more.
And you could certainly also replace the cabbage with quartered Brussels sprouts, small florets of broccoli or cauliflower, or another favorite vegetable. (By the way, if you love roasted cabbage, try this recipe for Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Apple Cider Butter.)
If you like wheat berries, you could also try an older recipe of mine, Warm Wheat Berries with Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Toasted Walnuts, Dried Cranberries & Balsamic Butter Sauce. But that recipe was designed to be a vegetarian supper – hence the warm balsamic butter. You could turn this into a room-temperature (vegan) salad by replacing the butter sauce with a maple-balsamic-lemon vinaigrette.
Check out our other grain salads in our grains recipe archive. One of my summer favorites is Mediterranean Farro Salad With Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Olives, Chickpeas & Cilantro, but you could make it in the winter, too.
🏈 More Super Bowl Ideas
Last week we talked about some Super Bowl party ideas, including homemade pizza – in a cast-iron pan or on a stone — with Vineyard toppings, and a Taco and Rice Bowl Bar. Saturday night I went to a friend’s baked potato potluck, which I thought was such a fun and delicious idea. She baked the potatoes (rubbed with oil, not in foil!) ahead and put out crisp bacon, sour cream, cheese, steamed broccoli, scallions and other toppings. Guests brought other toppings, including a delicious chili. I brought Double Lemon Brussels Sprouts with Parmigiano “Pebbles.” Yes, a somewhat untraditional baked potato topping – but tasty! You could certainly adapt the baked potato bar for a Super Bowl party.
But this week I’ve also got some ideas for smaller bites, if you just want to graze throughout the game. Since I have potatoes on the brain, I think I’ll make Ellie Krieger’s easy Loaded Potato Nachos. With beans and avocados, you could also just call that a meal.
You could make a recipe of White Bean and Roasted Garlic Dip with Homemade Pita Crisps or Warm Baked Feta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Olives and Herbs and have those in front of the TV.
For a warm and filling nibble, Mini Puff Pastry Quiches with Caramelized Leeks, Bacon and Blue Cheese (or any filling) would be nice. They can be made ahead and reheated easily.
If you want to go with a seriously local, Vineyard-style appetizer, make Stuffed Quahaugs with Bread Stuffing and Linguiça.
Maybe this is the year you make The Pollan Family’s Buffalo Cauliflower.
Check out our appetizer archive for more ideas.
🍋 🧁 Snack Cakes for the Win
If you’d like to have a sweet around for the Super Bowl or just for weekend snacking, I think something lemony would be nice, like Abby’s Tangy Lemon Bars with Lemon-Poppy Seed Crust or her Glazed Lemon Poundcake from her Baking Together column.
But if you’re hosting a crowd, I think a snack cake makes sense. People can cut a small or large square out of the pan as they like, when they like. And everyone loves Abby’s Pumpkin Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting, so that would be top of my list.
👩🏽🍳 Celebrating Black Cookbook Authors
A great way to honor Black History Month is to explore cookbooks by Black authors. I’d like to expand my collection (some shown on the left) with many on this list that bookshop.org put together, including Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by poet and novelist Crystal Wilkinson.
Heads up: the new book from the Vineyard’s own Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Braided Heritage: Recipes and Stories on the Origin of American Cuisine, publishes in June this year. We’ll have more about that, and a recipe excerpt I hope, in a few months.
This weekend, enjoy the Super Bowl, gathering with friends, curling up with a good cookbook, baking a cake — or anything else that brings you joy. As always, if you have a question, leave a comment here or feel free to email us at cookthevineyard@vineyardgazette.com.
— Susie Middleton, editor
❤️ Don’t forget to click the little heart at the top or bottom if you liked this post!
🥗 Where to Find Recipes and Past Newsletters
Our recipe archive is always open at cookthevineyard.com.
All previous newsletters can be accessed by paid subscribers at cookthevineyard.substack.com.
🍽️ What’s Happening Around the Island
🥕 Farm Stands, Winter Schedules
Ghost Island Farm is now open every day all winter, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Beetlebung Farm is open Wednesday to Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Morning Glory Farm is open daily, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Grey Barn’s farm stand is open Thursday to Monday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
North Tabor Farm’s farm stand is open daily, dawn to dusk.
Mermaid Farm is always open!
🐟 Seafood Markets
The Fish House is closed for the season.
The Net Result is closed through February 13.
Larsen’s is closed for the season.
Menemsha Fish Market is open Thursday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. They will be closed for a short break, January 10 to 12.
🍽️ Events
The Ag Society’s next Local Food Potluck is Monday, February 10, 5:30 to 7 p.m. Bring your own drinks, dishware and a local-food based dish to share.
Catboat Coffee’s Thursday night dinners continue. This Thursday, February 6, the special is Lebanese Chicken with tabbouleh and fattoush. Pre-order online, pick up 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The Sweet Life Café hosts Jeremy Berlin for jazz piano every Thursday night during the winter.
The First Light Café at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum holds a “B Side” Brunch every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring delicious food, non-alcoholic beverages, and an excellent playlist.
Photos: Warm Wheat Berry Salad, Annabelle Breakey; Potato Nachos, Randi Baird; Quahogs, Ray Ewing; Buffalo Cauliflower, Nicole Franzen; all others Susie Middleton.
🥕🥕🥕
Thank you as always for the recipes, and thank you especially for the celebration of Black cookbook authors (every month is Black History Month of course, but the acknowledgement is much appreciated).