Beet and Barley Salad With Date-Citrus Vinaigrette

By Joan Nathan

Published Sept. 1, 2021

Beet and Barley Salad With Date-Citrus Vinaigrette
Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Hadas Smirnoff.
Total Time
1½ hours
Rating
4(292)
Comments
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Have fun with this early fall salad, meant for Rosh Hashana but festive throughout the season. Bitter and tart greens, like arugula, crunchy romaine and celery, pair well with shallots or red onion, dates, dried figs, a handful of multicolored olives and crisp, refreshing cucumbers. About a cup of cooked barley adds chew, but you could use lentils or chickpeas instead for more protein. If you can find them, heirloom varieties of barley add wonderful nutty complexity. Beets — used in ancient times more for the leaves than the roots — currants and green grapes lend color and sweetness, as well as a pomegranate, the symbol of fruitfulness by virtue of its many seeds. All these foods are symbolic of fertility, abundance, and prosperity in the New Year.

Featured in: This Rosh Hashana Salad Is a Fresh Take on Ancient Flavors

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Ingredients

Yield:8 to 10 servings
  • 2medium beets, scrubbed
  • ½cup pearl barley
  • Coarse kosher salt
  • 1lemon
  • 1garlic clove, minced
  • 2teaspoons date honey (also labeled date syrup)
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 5tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4handfuls of mixed slightly bitter lettuce, like chicory, arugula, romaine, Swiss chard or beet leaves, roughly torn
  • 1cup fresh mixed herbs, like mint, thyme, oregano, parsley, hyssop, lovage and cilantro
  • 2celery stalks, cut down the center and diced in ½-inch pieces
  • 1 to 2Persian cucumbers, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch dice
  • 2large shallots or ½ red onion, diced in ½-inch pieces (see Tip)
  • 5dried figs or 4 fresh figs, quartered
  • 1cup white or red grapes, or a combination, halved
  • 1cup mixed pitted olives, halved
  • ½cup pomegranate seeds
  • ½cup crumbled feta
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)

190 calories; 10 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 23 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 334 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap the beets individually in foil. Bake until tender when pierced with a fork, 1 to 1½ hours. When cool enough to handle, peel the beets and cut into bite-size pieces.

  2. Step 2

    While the beets are roasting, make the barley: Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Add the barley and ½ teaspoon salt, and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes, or until al dente.

  3. Step 3

    While the barley is cooking, make the salad dressing: Squeeze the juice from the lemon (about 2 tablespoons) into a small bowl. Add the garlic and date honey, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the olive oil and set aside.

  4. Step 4

    When the barley is cooked, drain, rinse and drain again. Taste, adding more salt, if necessary, and let cool completely.

  5. Step 5

    When ready to serve, use your hands to gently mix the lettuce and herbs in a large salad bowl and scatter on the barley, beets, celery, cucumbers, shallots, figs and grapes. Top with the olives, pomegranate seeds and feta, and sprinkle on the dressing. Mix at the table and serve immediately.

Tip
  • If you’d like to mellow out the bite of raw shallot, you can soak it in cold water for about 10 minutes, then drain.

Ratings

4 out of 5
292 user ratings
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Comments

Prakash Nadkarni

A simple, delicious recipe. The instructions very sensibly overlap steps 1- 3. I've come to prefer the Instant Pot for cooking beets (scrubbed and washed, halved or quartered, with 1 cup water, 25 mins + natural release. (I typically make 3-4 pounds of beets in the pot.) If you make Tennessee-style pickled beets (sliced or diced, in sweetened vinegar), the pickling liquid makes a great vinaigrette combined with EVOO, some lemon/lime juice, salt, pepper & minced garlic.

Gian Marco

Excellent. The picture is a bit „idealized“. Beets will turn the salad pink, but they taste great. If you want to impress your guests — first optic impression — add the beets at the very last.

High Desert Rat

Sounds delicious. With hope for a sweet year, no sour on the table - no citrus, no vinegar - on the Erev Rosh Hashanah table for me. Only sweet flavors.

Kelly

This was even better than expected! Made it for my picky boyfriend who ate 3 bowls! My tip- get extra lemon. I chose chard for my greens and I used the stems too. To make sure everything was a nice texture, I massaged the chard and let it marinate in the lemon while the beets cooked and before getting the barley started. I also preferred this chilled after it sat some even more than fresh.

sara b

I loved this salad! The combination of flavors was fantastic and unusual. It seems like it might be customizable but totally terrific as written.

Alana

This salad is a crowd pleaser and perfect complement to any festive Fall meal. The flavors and ingredients complement each other perfectly and the dressing is really good (I will now put date syrup in everything!).

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