my mother-in-law introduced me to barley the year my daughter was born. she stayed with us for a long time and kind of took over my kitchen as i was out of commission with a newborn and a toddler. we had this vegetable barley soup almost every day for breakfast while she was there and several different barley salads. barley is sort of an obsession of hers. in fact, after she left and i was trying to get back into the swing of cooking, i opened my sugar cannister to find it filled with…not sugar, but barley! that is really funny to me now, but it wasn’t then. i was postpartum trying to bake some cookies or something. you know…i did not want any more barley. anyway, over the years my mother-in-law has introduced me to a lot of great foods. i first ate salmon at her house, and now i cannot imagine how i existed so many years without it. she was the first truly healthy cook i knew, and for the most part, i have loved learning from her. anyway, since her stay with me in seattle 8 years ago, i have gone up and down with barley. but truly this salad from the smitten kitchen has renewed my own love for a healthy grain.

read this post. make this salad. you won’t be sorry.

i made it for lunch today and taido called just i was finishing it to say he was going out for lunch. too bad…more for me. soooooo good.

millie, i’m not bringing any on sunday. you’ll just have to come by…probably today some time. it will be gone soon.