Simply Grains Salad

I was recently fortunate enough to be contacted by the lovely people at Simply Grains and asked to try out a couple of their vegan friendly handmade salads to review on the blog. I am always open to trying and testing out new vegan friendly food so of course I agreed! 

Simply Grains sent me over two of their healthy and delicious looking salads to try, a Seasonal Barley salad (above photo) and a Tabbouleh salad (below photo). 

I have to say that although i'm vegan I do go against the 'grain' with my lack of enthusiasm for salads. I think the general conception is that vegan's only live off salads but in my case that couldn't be further from the truth! There are parts of salads that I enjoy like avocado (who doesn't!?), beetroot,   cucumber and sweetcorn but i'm not hugely into big leafy salads and am often told off by family for never finishing the salad on my plate. So I did breathe a sigh of relief when the salads from Simply Grains arrived as there were minimal leaves and they actually looked pretty hearty.

I decided to share these salads with my husband for lunch one day and we couldn't wait to tuck into them. 

The Seasonal Barley salad (above) contained barley, black eyed peas, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and onions with a pomegranate vinaigrette. I really enjoyed this salad and out of both it would have to be my favourite. It was surprisingly both tasty and filling and made a great accompanying side dish with some falafel and pitta bread. The combination of both barley and the black eyed peas worked really well together and I did genuinely feel as though I was eating some real goodness with this salad. 

The Tabbouleh salad contained quinoa, fresh mint, parsley, tomatoes and onions with a lemon juice vinaigrette. I really love quinoa but for some reason I rarely use it at home because I am never sure what to do with it! This salad has given me some food for thought on how I could use it going forward and it's definitely an ingredient I want to experiment with more. I think the quinoa worked really well in this salad and again made it a satisfying and filling meal. I did find the mint and lemon flavours slightly overpowering but that's just my personal opinion and, although it wasn't my favourite out of the two, my husband really enjoyed the taste of both.

Using only the freshest and locally sourced ingredients, Simply Grains aim to promote healthy eating that can also be enjoyable and delicious. I'm pleased to say that I really think that they have succeeded with these salads whilst also helping to change perceptions around the idea that salads are  boring. I also love that their entire range of salads are vegetarian with vegan and gluten free options too.

If you would like to try out one of Simply Grains salads for yourself then be sure to check out their  Twitter and events page for more information.