Barley pilaf and citrus-feta-spinach salad

I had a great meal earlier this week. I was looking for ways to use a grapefruit I bought for reasons unknown and subsequently forgot about, and found Citrus Spinach Salad with Feta and Cranberry Dressing on AllRecipes. Considering how to turn that into a meal, I thought of rice pilaf, and then was looking in my cabinets and thought, no, barley pilaf.

It came out excellently. I had leftovers tonight; the pilaf is gone in two moderate servings, I have a third generous serving of the salad left.

Ultimately, I didn't even use the grapefruit in the salad - it was too far gone. Instead I used a blood orange, which I zested for the dressing, and about half a pomelo. Other than not toasting the walnuts (it was too much *hand to forehead*) I followed the recipe for the salad: spinach, walnuts, feta, citrus, in their approximate given quantities.

I amended the dressing recipe, however.

Cranberry Dressing:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup cranberry juice
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• zest of one orange

The secrets to salad dressing that stays emulsified are twofold: use an emulsifier in the ingredients, such as mustard, and add the oil in small doses, mixing thoroughly in between (I shake it in a jar). With so much juice and no mustard, I'm not sure this could have stayed emulsified no matter how slowly I added the oil, but I may try adding a little mustard powder next time I make it. It was quite good. Alternatively, a friend suggested soaking some chia seed in the cranberry juice overnight and then straining out the solids, and thought my counteroffer of adding ground flax (since I have that but not chia on hand) would also work.

Barley Pilaf:

• 1/2 cup barley
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• olive oil
• sliced mushrooms
• chopped onions
• chopped carrots
• minced garlic
• slivered almonds
• black pepper

Toast the barley and almonds until golden and fragrant. Remove from the pan. Saute the vegetables, other than the garlic, until they have softened and the mushroom liquid has mostly evaporated. Add garlic and black pepper. Re-add barley and almonds and pour in broth. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer until liquid is absorbed.

I won't lie: this is a wet pilaf. And this is not the exact way I made it; I forgot about toasting the nuts and had to pull the vegetables out of the pan and toast them afterward. But it was really good. And the darkness of the pilaf, soft but with the tooth of the barley and almonds, contrasted incredibly well with the brightness of the salad, the crunch and pop of the spinach and citrus.