Photo by Molly Elliott

Dish of the Week: Grain salads

Where: Sweetgreen, Chop’t, your kitchen

Food coma. Siesta time. Call it what you will, but postprandial somnolence — that overwhelming urge to take a nap after eating — is a serious problem for anyone who works in a cubicle or in a country that isn’t Spain. So how do you avoid nodding off at your desk after lunch? Sweetgreen has the answer.

Sweetgreen has partnered with Mark Bittman, New York Times columnist and author of How to Cook Everything, to bring us lunchtime bliss. During the month of April, you can order the VB6 salad (that stands for “Vegan Before 6,” Bittman’s philosophy for healthy, coma-free eating), a mixture of quinoa, farro, roasted tofu, kale, arugula, carrots, peppers, almonds, basil, and carrot-chili vinaigrette. And while grain salads may sound like rabbit food, they’re actually a pretty perfect mid-day meal: hearty enough to fill your tummy, but not enough that you’ll pass out drooling on your keyboard.

Chop’t has also dipped a toe in the grain salad waters, sometimes offering them as a seasonal menu special. But if you want to enjoy grain salads year round, it’s best to just whip them up yourself. They’re delicious hot or cold, play double duty as meal or a side dish, and are infinitely customizable. As someone whose eyes are bigger than her stomach, I’ve spent some time considering how to craft a meal that’s filling but not somnolence-inducing. Below is one of the many variations I cook at home.

Alicia’s Wild Rice Salad for a Crowd
This makes a lot of salad, so consider halving the recipe if you don’t plan to eat this all week or bring it to a dinner party. The proportions are rough–feel free to adjust or improvise to taste.

Salad
10 oz uncooked wild rice
1 large red onion
1 pomegranate, seeded
1 large butternut squash
2 cups whole walnuts
Half a head of lacinato kale (curly kale works too, but the leaves are bigger, so you’ll want to use less)
4 oz of crumbled goat cheese

Dressing
Balsamic or sherry vinegar
Olive oil
Honey mustard
Herbs de Provence
Salt, pepper, sugar to taste

1. Cook rice according to package. Wild rice typically takes about an hour.

2. Peel and cut squash into small cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast in a 375 degree oven until tender, about 40-45 minutes.

3. While the squash cooks, chop or crumble the nuts into smaller pieces. Place the nuts in a pan and toast them until crunchy, 8-10 minutes.

4. Remove the ribs from the kale and slice leaves into bite-size strips.

5. Dice and sauté the red onion with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper until softened.

6. When the rice is about 10 minutes from finishing, toss the kale into the rice pot and cover. This way you can steam the kale without dirtying another pot.

7. Make dressing: Whisk together a teaspoon of mustard, a couple healthy dashes of dried herbs, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a few splashes of vinegar in a bowl. While continuing to whisk, slowly dribble in olive oil until the dressing is the consistency and tanginess you like. I like to use a 2:1 oil to vinegar ratio and use half sherry, half balsamic vinegar.

8. Toss everything together, adding more dressing, salt, sugar, and/or pepper as necessary. Serve warm or at room temperature. Ingredients can be made in advance and combined when you’re ready to eat.

Small Bites

Hey, Hey, It’s National (Rye) Beer Day
City Tap House (901 9th Street NW) is celebrating National Beer Day on Monday with rye infused beers, rye whiskey cocktails and French dip sandwiches made with rye malt bread and duck fat fries. Beers specials include Atlas Brew Works’ Rowdy, The Bruery’s Sour In The Rye, Boulevard Brewing Co.’s Rye-on-Rye, Firestone Walker Brewing Co.’s Wookey Jack, Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye, and Terrapin Beer Company’s Rye Pale Ale.

A New Sunday Prix-fixe at Ardeo + Bardeo
Cleveland Park’s Ardeo + Bardeo (3311 Connecticut Avenue NW) is offering a new Sunday Supper Menu, starting this Sunday, April 6. A $40 per person charge covers a weekly alternating three-course meal with a glass of red or white wine (tax and gratuity excluded). The new menu kicks off with an appetizing Burrata Antipasti and a Brick Oven Porchetta entrée. Sunday Supper is served from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. —Ashley Wetzel

Ping Pong Dim Sum Celebrates Spring
Ping Pong Dim Sum (1 Dupont Circle NW and 900 7th Street NW) is just as excited as the rest of us to be done with the cold weather. To celebrate, they are revamping their cocktail menu and adding some great happy hour and brunch specials to their Dupont and Chinatown locations. Mixologist Chris Basset launches the spring menu collection on Tuesday April 8th featuring a Shanghai Pimm’s Cup and Sichuan Vodka Tonic. Join the Happy Hour crowd from 4 to 7 p.m. (weekdays) for $5 specials, or if the weekend celebrations are more your thing, look out for the Unlimited Mimosa Bar & Dim Sum Feast for $36 per person. —Ashley Wetzel