honey balsamic power salad

packing lunches for work every day has put me back in the mentality of last summer, when i all but lived on one-bowl meals: varying combinations of vegetables, starches and proteins with zippy sauces, dressings and pestos. i like to make big pots of grains and pulses on sunday night and eat them all through the week. wheat berries, for example, get heated with a bit of milk and honey and are eaten for breakfast with fresh fruit, tossed into salads for lunch, or mixed with fresh basil and used as a bed for steamed fish at dinnertime. adzuki beans are also equal meal opportunists: mashed with a hit of salt and crushed red pepper, they're excellent smeared on toast and topped with a poached egg for breakfast, spooned into the hollow of an avocado drizzled with lime for lunch, or folded into a dinner salad.
where i'm really going with this, anyway, is that with pre-cooked staples in your fridge (or freezer), salads like this take minutes to throw together. adzuki beans and wheat berries are nutritional powerhouses on their own, but when combined with kale, oven-roasted tomatoes and an assertive honey balsamic dressing (courtesy of heidi) you've got yourself a lunch to be reckoned with. something to look forward to when, say, the L train doesn't feel like running towards manhattan for 45 minutes at 8:30 am on a thursday morning and you're stuck in an underground sweat swamp and then when the train finally comes, oh, people in all seriousness will not make space for you because you're holding a sort-of-sticky yoga mat and looking just sweaty enough to suggest that you might not smell awesome, and so you are shunned by your fellow commuters even though you've been waiting for the train for longer than most of them, and are forced to show up to work disheveled, half an hour late and craving a milkshake something fierce. needless to say, i fell off the no-caffeine bandwagon pretty hard this week, but i digress. salad! lunch!honey balsamic power salad
makes about 4 or 5 servings

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes (i bet some oven-roasted plums would be really good too)
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp honey
  
• 1 bunch kale,* rinsed and torn into bite sized pieces
• 1 1/2 cups cooked wheat berries (about 3/4 cups uncooked; you could also use farro, spelt, or barley)
• 1 1/2 cups cooked adzuki beans (or you could use canned beans of your choice)
• 3 tbsps chopped thyme or basil
  
• salt and freshly ground black pepper and/or crushed red pepper to taste

for dressing:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons runny honey
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

*i used red russian kale, the most beautiful of all cruciferous vegetables, but of course you could use whatever greens you like.

preheat oven to 375°F. halve cherry tomatoes and in a small baking dish, toss with 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp honey and a pinch of salt. bake between half an hour and 45 minutes, until tomatoes are collapsed and shriveled (mmm, shrively toms), shaking the pan occasionally to prevent too much sticking.

while tomatoes are roasting, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a heavy cast iron skillet over medium-low heat. after about a minute, add kale. you might need to work in batches, waiting for a handful to collapse and make space before you add the next handful. stir so all kale is lightly coated in oil and put a lid on the pan. cook for another minute or two, stir in some salt and red pepper, and remove from heat and set aside--your kale should be bright green and starting to collapse but not completely wilted.

make dressing: combine first four dressing ingredients in a teacup. whisking with a fork, slowly drizzle in olive oil in a thin stream, whisking vigorously the whole time. taste, adjust and set aside.

when tomatoes and kale are both cooked, combine them in a large bowl with wheat berries, beans and thyme or basil. drizzle about half your dressing over it, toss well, and taste--you will most likely want more dressing, salt and pepper. adjust as needed, toss well, and serve as is or refrigerate for a few hours and serve cold.