This wheat berry salad is a delicious and healthy salad option that can be served for lunch or as an accompaniment at dinner. It contains nutty and chewy wheat berries, a variety of fresh herbs and vegetables, pomegranate arils and walnuts. This salad is vegan and vegetarian, but can easily be adjusted to make it meatier!
This is one of our favorite grain-based salads because of its versatility. It makes a refreshing summer salad for lunch, but can also be served in the winter.
It is a perfect way to include wheat berries into your diet. If you love our vegan buckwheat salad or Turkish bulgur salad, then you will fall in love with this recipe too.
Why We Love This Recipe
We absolutely love this incredibly easy and delicious wheat berry salad recipe. Here’s why:
- It is an incredibly quick and easy salad to make. You basically only have three easy steps; combine the salad ingredients and make the dressing.
- You can use precooked and even frozen wheat berries. This will save you a ton of prep time, especially when you don’t have any to spare!
- It is a healthy salad. Unlike a ton of other salads you find these days, this wheat berry salad recipe only contains fresh and nutritious ingredients.
- It is an incredibly flexible recipe. This recipe is very easy to adjust. You can substitute virtually any of these ingredients, but also easily add some of your own. If you are not following a vegan diet, you can add some meat or cheese if you’d like.
Ingredients
The hero ingredient of this wheat berry salad recipe is of course the wheat berries. To cook them is incredibly easy and they don’t even need any seasoning! Have a look at our in-depth post on How To Cook Wheat Berries.
Our recipe includes a wide variety of authentic Mediterranean ingredients including red and green onions, sweet red peppers, mint and parsley, walnuts, and some juicy pomegranate arils.
The onions help add a balancing flavor to the slightly sweet and nutty wheat berries and very sweet red pepper and pomegranate seeds. They also provide texture and a beautiful color.
We prefer using walnuts with this recipe as their nutty flavor complements that of the wheat berries. You can however choose virtually any nut you’d like.
Lastly, we finish off our salad with a delicious tangy salad dressing. It only uses some lemon juice, olive oil, and luscious homemade pomegranate molasses.
Alternative Add-Ins
This is an incredibly flexible recipe in which you can easily substitute any ingredient and even add some additional ones.
You can substitute the walnuts with virtually any other kind. Some of our favorites include almonds, pecans, and cashews. They all go well with wheat berries in this salad.
If you want to make your salad extra bulky and filling, you can add virtually any other vegetable that is normally used in salad. This can include cucumber, cabbage, carrots, roasted zucchini or eggplants.
And if you want to give it an extra protein punch, add in some beans or legumes. We always love including roasted seasoned chickpeas or some shelled fava beans.
This is a vegan and vegetarian recipe, but you can very easily add in some leftover roasted chicken pieces or meat like crispy bacon, salami pieces, pancetta and fried spicy chorizo.
How to Make
This is an incredibly healthy, delicious, and easy salad that can be whipped up in less than 10 minutes. What makes this salad unique is that you can easily substitute any ingredient and even add in some others.
First, prepare the ingredients. Make sure to cook your wheat berries until they reach al dente, not mush. Just like when you do when cooking buckwheat. You can also chop all of your other ingredients. Combine all the salad ingredients together and set them aside.
Second, make the dressing. To make the delicious salad dressing, simply combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until they are combined.
Finally, pour the dressing over the salad and make sure to give it a good toss. Garnish your wheat berry salad with some pomegranate arils and serve while it’s fresh.
Serving Suggestions
This wheat berry salad makes the perfect light summer lunch as is, but it can also be served as an accompaniment.
You can top this salad with some grilled halloumi cheese slices if you want to add some protein in it.
You can serve it alongside a delicious warm winter soup like our Red Lentil Spinach Soup or our famous Turkish Tomato Orzo Soup.
This wheat berry salad also makes fantastic flavorful accompaniment to chicken or meat dishes like rich Turkish Chicken Kabobs or lamb shish kebabs. It is great to serve with seafoods like baked tilapia too.
FAQs
We would highly recommend substituting wheat berries with extra coarse bulgur wheat. It has a very similar consistency and flavor so will blend in seamlessly.
For gluten-free substitutes, choose something like rice, quinoa, or buckwheat.
You can definitely use these cooked wheat berries in warm salads as well.
Yes, you can. Keep it in the refrigerator for up to a day. It is better to store it without the dressing. Pour the salad dressing over the salad right before serving and give it a good toss.
More Grain Recipes
More Salad Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Wheat Berry Salad (Mediterranean Style)
A healthy and filling salad with wheat berries and greens for summer days.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Lunch
- Method: blending
- Cuisine: Turkish
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
Salad:
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1 cup cooked wheat berries
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4 green onions, chopped thinly
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1 small red onion, finely chopped
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1 small sweet red pepper, finely chopped
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½ cup fresh mint, chopped
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½ cup parsley, chopped
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4-5 walnuts, chopped
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2 tablespoons pomegranate arils
Salad dressing:
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1 lemon, juice squeezed
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2 tablespoons olive oil
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1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
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1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Put all the salad ingredients in a large bowl.
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In a small bowl, whisk all the dressing ingredients well.
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Pour the dressing over the salad and toss.
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Garnish with pomegranate arils and serve.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 273
- Sugar: 18.2 g
- Sodium: 648 mg
- Fat: 14.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 34.3 g
- Protein: 4.7 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: wheat berry salad
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Nancy says
This is the first food I made with wheat berries. And LOVE it! I added some blanched broccoli too. Yummy!
★★★★★
OysterCulture says
Beautiful and healthy, just about perfect!
Megan says
I've never had a salad like this but it sounds fresh and filling.
torviewtoronto says
delicious combination looks wonderful
Liz says
What a gorgeous and refreshing salad...I would love this for lunch...again and again!!! Lovely~
dokuzuncubulut says
Çok lezzetli ve besleyici bir salata olmuş. Sunumu ise çok iştah açıcı. Çok beğendim, ellerine sağlık Zerrin.
fladiop says
i think this is great salad i see and know,thank for u ,i hope u will show me more food u cook :),wish u alway smile and happy
Mandy - The Complete Cook Book says
What a fabulously healthy and tasty salad. It looks delicious.
🙂 Mandy
irena says
Looks wonderful, love hint of mint and wheat:)
Zerrin says
Mint gives a great flavor to this salad. I love this herb so much that I can even eat it at breakfast.
A little bit of everything says
I love using wheat or bulgur in my salad. yours looks so delicious and refreshing. thanks for sharing Zerrin. hope you'll have a wonderful Friday
Zerrin says
Bulgur and wheat are obviously healthier and tastier!
Kim - Liv Life says
Zerrin, I could eat this nearly every day! Something about the wheat in it fills me up, I love a grain in my salad.
Zerrin says
I sometimes put it into my lunch box and take it to work. So filling too!
Nicole @ The Dirty Oven says
I so want to try this...alas, just found out I am intolerant to gluten...maybe I could change it up with another type (gluten-free) grain. Thanks for sharing. Love your blog.
Zerrin says
You can absolutely try this with rice too!
marla says
Love the mint in this salad!
Zerrin says
I'm a big fan of fresh mint and can use it with anything!
Cajun Chef Ryan says
Beautiful salad Zerrin, I would like a plate of that now!
Zerrin says
Thanks Ryan! It's very easy too!
anncoo says
Mmm... this wheat salad looks so beautiful and healthy. I really needs to eat this more often after the Chinese New Year. 🙂
Zerrin says
Wheat is definitely a healthy grain. As we almost never have rice because of blood sugar concern, I will be experimenting new dishes with wheat.