Winter Spelt Salad

I’ll present to you a recipe for a winter spelt salad, a nutritious and flavorful dish that is well suited to this season. Spelt is an ancient grain highly valued in Italy, and we can pair it with seasonal ingredients.

Ingredients

• 200 g of pearled spelt
• 1 bunch of black kale or curly kale
• 1 apple
• 1 orange
• 50 g of walnuts or toasted hazelnuts
• 50 g of Parmesan shavings
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Start by rinsing the spelt under running water and cook it in a pot of salted water according to the instructions on the package (usually between 15-30 minutes). Once cooked, drain it and let it cool down.
2. In the meantime, prepare the black kale by removing the toughest part of the stem and cutting it into strips. Massage it with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice so it softens.
3. Peel and cut the apple into small pieces and peel the orange “a vivo,” removing the skin and white filaments, then cut into segments by removing the membranes.
4. In a large bowl, mix the spelt with the black kale, chopped apple, orange segments, chopped nuts or hazelnuts, and Parmesan shavings.
5. Dress the salad with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste, gently mixing to combine all the ingredients.

This spelt salad is perfect either warm or cold, and you can enrich it as you like with other seasonal ingredients such as radicchio, fennel, or chickpeas for a note of protein!

Curiosity

Spelt is a fairly ancient grain already known and cultivated in prehistoric times. In Italy, spelt has important production in certain areas such as Garfagnana and the Spoleto region, where it is valued in several traditional preparations.