Barley and Charred Kale Bowl with Chickpeas and Sesame Tahini
Chewy barley under blistered kale and cumin-warmed chickpeas, with a thick lemon tahini spooned over the top and toasted sesame seeds and torn mint scattered across.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is my desk lunch in the weeks when I have cooked a pot of barley on Sunday, which is most weeks between October and March. Barley holds up in the refrigerator better than any other grain I keep, staying chewy and separate for four or five days while rice turns to cement, so a pot of it on Sunday is three or four lunches without another thought. The rest of the bowl comes together in the time the skillet takes to get hot. If you want it hot, eat it right out of the pan. If you want it cold, build it in a container the night before and it will be just as good.
Two things make it taste like more work than it was. The first is treating the kale roughly, a dry hot skillet and no stirring, so the leaves blister and take on the smoky, almost toasted flavor that a gentle wilt never gives you. The second is the sauce. Tahini and lemon juice seize up and go pasty the moment they meet, which alarms people, and the fix is to keep whisking in cold water a spoonful at a time until it loosens into something pourable and pale. Yogurt whisked in at the end makes it tangier and lighter on the spoon.
The pleasure of the bowl is the range of textures inside it. Barley is chewy, chickpeas are crisp on the outside and floury in the middle, kale shatters where it charred and stays supple where it did not, and the sauce ties every one of those together. Sesame seeds toasted in the last minute give you something to crack between your teeth. Mint and thin slices of red onion cut through the whole thing at the end. I eat this one slowly, which is not something I can say about many lunches I make on a Tuesday.
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups cooked pearl barley (from about 1 1/4 cups dry)
- 2 (15-oz) cans chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and patted dry
- 1 large bunch Tuscan kale (about 10 oz), stems stripped and leaves torn into wide pieces
- 6 tbsp tahini, stirred well before measuring
- 2/3 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, from 1 large lemon
- 1/2 red onion, sliced as thinly as you can
- 3 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh mint
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Cook the barley: Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add 1 1/4 cups pearl barley, and simmer, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes, until the grains are tender but still push back when you bite one. Drain well and spread on a sheet pan for a few minutes so the steam escapes and the grains stay separate. This can be done up to four days ahead.
- Whisk the tahini sauce: Whisk the tahini, lemon juice, half the grated garlic, and 1/2 tsp of the cumin in a bowl. It will seize into a stiff paste almost immediately. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time, whisking hard after each one, until it loosens into a smooth sauce that ribbons off the whisk, about five tablespoons in all. Whisk in the yogurt and the black pepper.
- Toast the sesame seeds: Put the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat and shake the pan for two to three minutes, until they go gold and start to hop and smell nutty. Tip them onto a plate straightaway. They keep coloring in a hot pan and turn bitter within a minute of looking perfect.
- Blister the kale: Wipe out the skillet, set it over medium-high heat, and get it properly hot. Add half the kale in a single layer with no oil and leave it alone for 90 seconds, until the undersides show dark blistered spots, then toss and cook one minute more. Move it to a plate and repeat with the rest. Season each batch with a pinch of the cumin.
- Crisp the chickpeas: Add the olive oil to the same pan, then the dried chickpeas, the remaining garlic, and the rest of the cumin. Cook for six to eight minutes, stirring only every couple of minutes, until the chickpeas are browned in patches and their skins have gone papery. Some will split open, which is what you want.
- Build the bowls: Divide the barley among four bowls and pile the kale and chickpeas over it while both are still hot. Spoon the tahini sauce across the top, then scatter the sesame seeds, the mint, and the sliced red onion over everything. Serve with a lemon wedge for anyone who wants it sharper.
Variations
- Roasted cauliflower: Fold in a small head of cauliflower roasted until the edges are dark, which suits the cumin and the tahini perfectly.
- Pomegranate and parsley: Swap the mint for chopped parsley and scatter a handful of pomegranate seeds over the top for a sweeter, sharper finish.
- Harissa heat: Whisk a teaspoon of harissa into the tahini sauce for smoke and a slow burn that builds across the bowl.
- With sardines: Lay a few drained canned sardines over each bowl for a heavier, oilier lunch, with lemon squeezed over at the table.
- Collards in place of kale: Use collard greens cut into wide ribbons, blistered the same way, for a sturdier leaf that holds its texture even after a night in the refrigerator.
Storage & Leftovers
Built bowls keep three days covered in the refrigerator, and I pack them for work without a second thought. The kale softens overnight and loses its crackle, so if that texture matters to you, keep the greens in a separate container and add them cold in the morning.
The tahini sauce keeps a full week in a jar and thickens as it sits. Loosen it with a splash of cold water and a fresh squeeze of lemon before you use it again. It is worth making a double batch while you have the whisk out, since it goes on roasted vegetables and eggs just as happily.
Barley freezes better than almost any grain. Cool it completely, freeze it flat in portions, and it thaws in a few hours on the counter with its chew intact. The dressed bowl does not freeze, since the yogurt splits and the kale turns to slush on thawing.
Notes & Tips
- Boil barley like pasta: A big pot of water and a colander beats the absorption method here. You get separate, chewy grains rather than a sticky mass, and you can taste one at any point to see where you are.
- Get the pan hot before the kale: Kale added to a warm pan sweats and turns army green. Added to a properly hot one it blisters within 90 seconds and tastes toasted rather than steamed.
- Stir tahini in the jar first: The oil separates and sits on top, and a spoonful taken off the surface makes a greasy sauce while a spoonful from the bottom makes a stiff one. Stir the whole jar down to the base before you measure.
- Cold water, not hot: Cold water lets you feel exactly when the sauce turns from paste to pourable. Hot water rushes past that point and you end up chasing the texture with more tahini.
- Slice the onion at the end: Thin red onion sharpens as it sits and softens once it hits the warm bowl. Cut it last and scatter it over each portion just before you eat.
- Save the lemon halves: Squeeze one half into the sauce and keep the other for the table. The bowl almost always wants a second hit of acid once the tahini has settled into the barley.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Barley, chickpeas, and tahini are the three things holding this bowl up. The grain gives it chew, the chickpeas give it substance, and the sesame in the sauce brings the richness that makes a bowl of vegetables and grain eat like a full lunch.
- Tahini is nothing but ground sesame seeds, which is why a few spoonfuls carry so much calcium and iron into a sauce this pale. It also brings the faint bitterness underneath the lemon that keeps the dressing from tasting flat.
- Kale blistered in a dry pan tastes smoky and nutty rather than green, and it holds onto its calcium and its vitamin K through the heat. The sturdy leaves are the reason it can take that kind of pan without collapsing.
- Chickpeas browned until their skins go papery are floury and sweet inside, and the fiber they bring is the slow kind that makes a bowl like this sit well for hours afterward.
- Toasted sesame seeds, cumin, mint, and thin red onion are the finish, and they matter more than their size suggests. The seeds crack, the cumin warms, the mint cools, and the onion cuts, so every forkful tastes slightly different from the one before.
- As you eat, pay attention to the places where the kale went dark and crisp against the places it stayed soft, and let the bowl take a few minutes longer than you meant to give it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use a different grain?
Farro is the closest in chew and cooks in about the same time. Bulgur works and is faster, though it drinks up the sauce and goes soft, so dress it just before eating. Brown rice is fine but blander, and the bowl leans harder on the lemon when you use it.
My tahini sauce turned into cement. Did I ruin it?
No, that happens to everyone and it is chemistry rather than error. Tahini seizes the second acid hits it. Keep whisking and keep adding cold water in small amounts, and it comes back smooth and pale. Warm water works faster but the sauce sets up thicker as it cools.
How do I get the chickpeas to actually brown?
Dry them properly. Tip the rinsed chickpeas onto a towel and roll them around for a minute, and leave any loose skins behind. Wet chickpeas steam in the pan and stay pale no matter how long you leave them, and a crowded skillet does the same thing, so use a wide one.
Is this filling enough to be lunch on its own?
It is. Between the barley, the chickpeas, and the tahini there is real substance in a bowl, and the protein and fiber in it are what make it hold. If you are feeding someone with a bigger appetite, add a soft-cooked egg or a few flakes of canned fish on top.