Cracked Wheat Salad - Dalia Salad

This Cracked Wheat (Dalia) Salad is light, refreshing, healthy and fun! It's wonderfully simple to make and has an abundance of fresh goodness.

Why Cracked Wheat?

The star of this recipe is cracked wheat/dalia in this salad.  Though this humble grain is very versatile, it's most commonly used for making porridge, sweet and savoury.  You can incorporate it in everyday cooking in so many ways.  Add it to your bakes - bread, muffins, cookies; use it for making pilafs, upma, dosa, halwa, burger patties, you can even add it in soups instead of pasta and of course salads.

Wholegrain foods, such as cracked wheat, contribute towards maintaining a healthy body weight.  It's an excellent source of fibre as it contains wheat bran and wheat germ.  It's also full of magnesium, which is essential for those enzymes which contribute to insulin secretion and for releasing glucose into the bloodstream.  Hence its daily consumption can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

How to make the Cracked Wheat (Dalia) Salad

Cracked Wheat Prep

• Start with soaking the cracked wheat in water for a few minutes instead of cooking it.  After soaking the texture is quite nutty and has a bite to it.  If you like a softer texture, simply cook it in plenty of water and drain it.  Just be careful that it doesn't turn mushy.  Soft or al dente, the cracked wheat should be fluffy to be used in a salad and not a sticky glug!

Vegetable Prep

• Roasted tomatoes and garlic add such a zing to this simple salad.  Just toss them with some olive oil, salt & pepper and roast them in your oven at 200C for about 20/ 30 minutes.  If you don't have cherry tomatoes handy, just use a couple of quartered regular tomatoes instead. In this recipe, we are not looking to oven drying the tomatoes, just a quick high heat roast to char them and make them lose a bit of their liquid.  The end result is a soft, very flavorful, caramelized tomato.
• Roasting garlic makes it soft and mellow, with almost a sweet buttery texture.   You can roast a few whole heads of garlic and keep them refrigerated.  This will fill your kitchen with this unbelievably insanely delicious aroma!
• Cut the avocados and drizzle some lemon juice on top to prevent them from premature browning.
• In a large bowl, combine all the vegetables with cracked wheat and sprouts.

Salad Dressing

• Put all the dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake till well emulsified.
• Pour over the salad and mix gently. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Let the salad rest in the refrigerator for an hour or so, for the flavours to meld.

I hope you'll give this Cracked Wheat (Dalia) Salad a try. Packed with nutrient-rich ingredients, this delicious salad is the epitome of clean and happy eating!

More easy & healthy salad recipes: 

• Apple Walnut Salad
• Watermelon Feta Salad
• Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
• Apricot Pasta Salad
• Greek Salad

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