Pearl barley, squash and goats cheese salad 
 
Sweet, earthy, rich and creamy. This is a perfect warming autumn salad recipe.
 
Ingredients:
Serves 4
 
1/2 Butternut Squash
4 Sprigs Thyme
1tbsp Olive Oil
100g Good Quality Chorizo 1 Onion
1 Clove Of Garlic
25ml Sherry
75g Pearl barley
1tbsp Powdered Vegetable Stock 1/2 A Celeriac
1 Bunch Of Cavolo Nero Cabbage 75g Pumpkin Seeds
100g Goats Cheese
Sherry Vinegar Reduction:
50ml Sherry Vinegar 40g Caster Sugar
 
Here’s how:
 
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Firstly, prepare the butternut squash by chopping off the top and bottom. Then chop in half widthways and remove the skin with a knife. (If you’re unsure how to do this check out our video.) Dice the peeled squash up into 1cm sized cubes,
place on baking tray, drizzle with the olive oil, season with salt and pepper and add the thyme. Place in the oven for 15 minutes or until slightly soft.
Next, dice the chorizo into small cubes and fry in a pan with a splash of oil until nice and crispy.
Peel and finely dice the onion and garlic and once the chorizo is crispy remove from the pan and set aside. Leave the oil from the chorizo in the pan to fry your onions and garlic with. This helps to give a better depth of flavour to the dish.
Fry the onions and garlic for about 10 minutes or until translucent, then add in the sherry and allow to reduce.
When the sherry is reduced place the barley into the pan, along with the crispy chorizo. Mix the vegetable stock with 200ml of boiling water and add to the pan as well. (You may need to add more hot water later on in the cooking process.)
Bring the pan of barley to a simmer and leave to gently simmer for about 20 minutes or until the barley is Al Dente. (Al Dente is an Italian cooking term meaning cooked until still firm once bitten.)
While the barley is cooking place a pan of water on to simmer and start to prepare the celeriac. Firstly, chop off the top and bottom of the celeriac and using a knife, peel off the skin. (If you’re unsure how to do this check out our video.) Dice the celeriac into equally sized 1/2 cm cubes. Season the water with salt and add in the celeriac. Cook for 5 minutes or until soft all the way through. Then drain off the water using a colander over the sink and set the celeriac aside.
Now move onto the preparation of the Cavolo Nero Cabbage. Do so by cutting down either side of the stalk, remove the leaf and discard the stem.
Place the Cavolo Nero leaves in a bowl, cover with boiling water and then immediately place into ice cold water. (This is known as refreshing, chefs refresh green vegetables this way to retain the vibrant green colour of the vegetable.) Place the pumpkin seeds on a baking tray and place in the oven to toast for about 8 minutes.
To make the sherry vinegar reduction, put the vinegar and sugar together in a pan and boil for around 5 minutes until thickened and set aside to cool.
When the barley is cooked remove from the heat and set aside.
You can now start to assemble the salad. Firstly, place the cabbage in the bowl, followed by the barley. Next sprinkle over the celeriac and roasted butternut squash. Tear the goats cheese and place onto the salad. (You can use a blow torch to melt the cheese slightly and give a lovely charred flavour to the salad if desired.) Then drizzle over the sherry vinegar reduction and to finish sprinkle over the toasted pumpkin seeds.
 
Recipe by Peter Sidwell