How to Make a Hearty Winter Salad with Radicchio



Test cook Keith Dresser makes Julia a Wheat Berry Salad with Radicchio, Dried Cherries, and Pecans.

Get our recipe for Wheat Berry Salad:

Buy our winning large saucepan:
Buy our winning bench scraper:
Buy our winning baking sheet:
Buy our winning chefs knife:

Browse our latest recipes:

ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.

If you like us, follow us:

source

Similar Posts

33 Comments

  1. Well, when a grain has to simmer 60 to 80 minutes to cook through, then using a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of grain to water obviously won't work. Long before the food is done the liquid will have cooked away. I'd try to use a large slow cooker for this if the texture isn't compromised and so my apartment won't turn into a sauna. (I'm curious about Julia's odd reaction to the shallot. That's a member of the onion family, not a tray of pastries she's Mmming over.)

  2. This is a terrific salad that was well received in our house. The original recipe is fantastic and also is flexible enough to withstand substitutions. While we were stuck inside during a massive ice storm, I made it subbing roasted hazelnuts for the pecans, finely chopped green onions for the shallot, and cranberries for the cherries. Still awesome. We love it for lunch. I hope to take it to a group gathering someday since it will withstand being at room temperature without sacrificing texture or flavor. Huge fan!

  3. It looks good but 2 callouts here:
    1.soaking whole grains overnight is absolutely necessary to make those digestible; 8+ hours is the minimum. Do not skip this step
    2.Use ancient grains, not modern wheat: modern wheat is very poorly tolerated by our bodies and it's not like you don't have delicious options with ancient grains (rye, kamut, einkorn, spelt, emkaput,

    As an example, whenever I eat modern wheat my body gets extremely achy within a day. The minute I stop eating it my body stops aching within a day…

  4. Here:
    Radicchio is a leafy member of the chicory family, often called Italian chicory, which explains its bold, bitter flavor.
    Although it's compact like red cabbage, radicchio's leaves are thinner and more tender, unlike red cabbage's firm and waxy texture. Red cabbage is a variety of cabbage with reddish-purple leaves.

  5. It's getting more difficult to find wheat berries in the market. I used to buy the Bob's Red Mill but they are no longer available from that brand. When I contacted the company they said they are not longer selling them but suggested Kamut as a substitute. The Kamut is very similar in nutritional value and I bought it but haven't tried it yet. I make a salad very similar to this but add lots more veggies—celery, red onion, carrots, diced romaine, sliced kalamata olives, and top it off with some feta. By adding more veggies it lowers the calories—wheat berries are quite high in calories with about 170 calories per cooked half cup. If the salad is mostly wheat berries that can add up quite quickly. And I add some sunflower seeds to my salad instead of walnuts or pecans—another lower-calorie option.

  6. 4:37 I had a dish almost the same with this on Thanksgiving weekend in a cafe in Southern California ~4 years ago. Instead of wheat berries, it had farro, and sour cherries dried cranberries; the vinegar was balsamic, and no blue cheese used (probably because not everyone liked it). It was even more delicious than imagined.

Leave a Reply