For this recipe I made use of the wonderful vegan manteca that I learned to do during a course at the Joya Academy in Milan, the school inaugurated by chef Pietro Leeman that I had the pleasure of following a couple of years ago.
Ingredients for 4
For the barley:
320 gr of pearl barley
1/2 Roman cauliflower (only the tops, the stem, let's not throw it away! Let's keep it aside to make some other preparation, such as this one that I propose with the leaves, replacing them with the stems).
5-6 green asparagus
1 fresh spring onion
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 organic orange (pulp and zest)
1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder (or 4-5 seeds, which will be cooked and then removed because they are unpleasant to find on the plate)
a few fresh mint leaves
salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil
Wash and peel the cabbage and the spring onion. Cut the tops of the cabbage into slices and chop the spring onion. Put 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan and brown the cabbage and spring onion together with the turmeric and cardamom. Clean and cut the asparagus.
Bring a couple of liters of water to the boil.
After a couple of minutes, salt slightly and add the barley. Mix the ingredients well and start adding hot water, a little at a time and mix often. Keep adding water until the barley is cooked (it will take on average 25'-30 ', it depends on the type of barley you have available).
In the meantime, clean the orange alive, recover a zest from the rind.
If you want a suggestion on how to do it, here you can find a simple tutorial.
Wash the mint leaves and dry them with a cloth or kitchen paper.
When cooked, season with salt and pepper, add 3 tablespoons of vegan white cauliflower manteca, orange zest, add the asparagus and mix well. Serve with some orange wedges, mind leaves and a grated black pepper.
For the vegan manteca:
I washed and topped half white cauliflower and then steamed it. Once soft, I reduced it to puree with the blender, adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil so that the thick cream mounts.
I then added the manteca at the end of the cooking of the barley, mixing so that it blends well.
Preparation time
about 1 hour
