How to Make a Wheat Berry Salad from Scratch on Appetites®

My wheat berry salad is fast, fresh, and delicious. You can watch me make it step by step on Appetites®. Four ounces of feta cheese, half a cup of dried cranberries, half a cup of soft wheat berries, half a cup of pecans, green onions, a quarter teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of honey, a quarter cup of olive oil, whole grain Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, and two cups of water for boiling the wheat berries. You want to get your wheat berries cooking because they take about an hour to complete. First let's get the water going, season it with a quarter teaspoon of salt and bring it to a rolling boil. Now pour in the wheat berries and stir. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for one hour or until tender. All the liquid should be absorbed. Toast up your pecans in a skillet or in the toaster oven. Heating them up brings out the essential oils in the nuts, adding more flavor. Make sure to stir them around so they don't burn. You can tell when the pecans are done toasting because you can smell their wonderful aroma. Finely chop the green onions. Now let's cube the feta. Now let's prepare the vinaigrette. Add half a teaspoon of whole grain Dijon mustard. I like using whole grain mustard because of the texture and the wonderful robust flavor. Add a teaspoon of honey. Add a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar. Give it a really good whisk. Now while you're whisking, drizzle the olive oil in a steady stream. This should emulsify the vinaigrette. When the wheat berries are done, you'll see that all of the liquid has been absorbed. Then it's time to transfer the wheat berries to a bowl. Now combine all the ingredients in the same bowl as the wheat berries. The feta, toasted pecans, cranberries, making sure to leave a few cranberries for garnish, the green onions, also leaving a few for garnishing, and then toss it. Now as you're whisking the vinaigrette, drizzle it into the bowl. If you only want to use half of the vinaigrette, that's okay too. Toss the mixture to incorporate everything well. Now spoon the salad into your serving bowl and garnish with the remaining cranberries and green onion. This is a great make ahead dish, because as the wheat berries sit, they keep absorbing the delicious vinaigrette.