Wheat Berry-Cranberry Salad

This is a ridiculously versatile recipe. The day I made it it was just too hot to go to the store for anything (except maybe to sleep in the Frozen Foods department overnight) so I decided to make do with what I had on hand. I subbed damn near everything: orange juice for cranberry juice, honey for maple syrup, sunflower seeds for pecans, dried cranberries for fresh, and red onions for green. And it was fabulous. I think you can make this work with whatever you have in your pantry. Add diced apples! Use walnut oil instead of olive oil! Use sorghum or cane molasses for the maple syrup! Balsamic vinegar instead of white wine! Also, I toasted the wheat berries and then tried cooking them in my rice cooker: success! They were perfectly toothy without being a jaw workout and the toasting made them even nuttier. My new favorite lunch. And I'll bet it travels well, too.

Of all the wheat berry salads I have made, this is a my all time favorite. I love the tartness of the cranberry and the vinegar. When I cannot get fresh cranberries, I use canned whole cranberries, ½ can with the olive oil, vinegar, and the mustard (omitting the maple syrup and cranberry juice) and it works perfectly. My preference is to use the fresh, but when I have to have this salad out of cranberry season, I have found a good work around :-)

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