barley galettes

Barley Galettes With Carrots, Beets, and fragrant spices

Using a food processor to chop the onion, and then to finely chop the beets and carrots, makes short work of this dish. No need to rinse the food processor between ingredients. While you can use ground spices from a jar, the flavor is so much brighter if you grind them yourself. It takes about 1 minute in a spice grinder. I have a cheap coffee grinder that I use for this purpose.

This recipe makes a lot. The good news is that you can freeze the raw mixture. Then the next time you want to make these, you’ll just defrost a batch, make the patties, and dinner is served!

Ingredients:

For the galettes

• 1 cup dry pearl barley

• 3 cups water or stock

• 1 large or 2 smaller onions, chopped

• 4 large cloves garlic, minced

• 2 stalks celery, very finely chopped

• Olive oil as needed for sautéing

• 1 cup grated carrots

• 1 cup grated beets

• 1 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more as needed

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 1 teaspoon cumin (freshly ground if possible)

• 1 teaspoon coriander (freshly ground if possible)

• 1 small handful each, parsley and cilantro, finely chopped (If you don’t like cilantro, use all parsley, or use some mint as well)

• 3 eggs

• ¾ cup dry breadcrumbs

  For frying

• I egg, beaten with a fork with a splash of cold water

• 1 cup dry breadcrumbs

• ¼ cup sesame seeds (leave them out if there are allergies)

• Neutral oil, such as sunflower or avocado, as needed

Method:

Cook the barley

• Heat 3 cups stock, or water with a little salt, and bring it to a boil.

• Add the barley, turn the heat down to a low simmer, cover the pot and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the barley is tender. Transfer the cooked barley to a large bowl. (You can prepare the barley in advance if you like.)

  Sauté the aromatics

• Sauté the onion in a small glug of olive oil, until it’s soft and translucent. Give it a sprinkle of salt while it’s cooking.

• Add the celery and garlic and continue to sauté until the onion is golden.

• Set the pan aside to cool.

Make the galettes

• Scrape the contents of the skillet into the bowl with the barley.

• Add everything else in the list— the vegetables, the spices, the herbs, the eggs, and the breadcrumbs. Mix it thoroughly so that it’s well combined. I like to use my hands for this, but if you don’t want to look like you’ve just committed murder, wear gloves. Beets are enthusiastic about dying everything they touch.

• Form patties with the mixture. I use an ice cream scoop to keep them all the same size. You can make them round or football shaped; the choice is yours. Flatten them out somewhat as you make them.

Fry the galettes

• Heat the oven to 200º to keep the galettes warm, as you’ll need to make them in batches.

• Combine the breadcrumbs and sesame seeds on a flat plate. I don’t actually measure here; I just dump a bunch of each on the plate.

• One at a time, coat each patty in the egg, letting the excess drip off, and them coat them in the breadcrumb/sesame mixture, then lay them out on a pan until you’ve made all the patties.

• In a large skillet, heat a glug of neutral oil until it shimmers.

• Add the patties to the pan, as many as will fit, making sure to leave enough room to be able to turn them. Cook them over medium/low heat until nicely browned. Then flip them over and do the same on the other side. You don’t want them to brown too quickly, as you want the vegetables in the galettes to have time to cook.

• When they’re done, transfer them to an oven-safe plate, slide it into the oven to keep warm, and make the next batch of patties. Do this until you’ve got them all fried.

• You have endless choices for what to do with your galettes. They look pretty topped with some microgreens. They’re lovely with romesco sauce, with pesto (I served them with a pesto made from parsley and cilantro), on a bun with ketchup (I make them a little bigger for this), with any number of Indian sauces, with fesenjan sauce…get creative and have fun!