Pesto is great with every vegetable and or grain, I swear! I have been doing a no grains diet lately and figured that I hadn't explored millet quite enough. I have made it a handful of times, but it has been a while. So, this dish was created. If you are worried about using millet, you could easily sub it for quinoa or quinoa (or couscous if you don't avoid gluten), you will just need to adjust the amount of vegetable broth you use (for quinoa or brown rice, use 2 cups vegetable broth instead of 3).
Tomato, Basil & Millet Salad with Pesto Dressing
- 1 cup uncooked millet, rinsed and drained
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
- 3 tablespoons thinly sliced basil
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- 1 cup chopped spinach
- Pesto dressing (recipe below)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- Directions
- Toast millet in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant and just golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and carefully add broth. Return to heat and bring to a boil over medium high heat then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered until liquid is absorbed and millet is tender, 20-25 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Transfer millet to a large bowl, fluff with a fork and set aside to let cool.
Add cannellini beans, green onions, tomato, spinach and basil to large bowl, toss gently and set aside.
- Make pesto dressing then add millet to bean tomato mixture and toss to coat. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, then pour dressing over millet mixture and toss to coat.
When serving, top with a dollop of pesto. Salad tastes better once the flavors have had a chance to mix, so let it sit for 30 min before eating it if you can.
Pesto Dressing
3 tablespoons your favorite basil pesto (mine is vegan, nut free Pumpkin Seed Pesto)
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
salt, to taste
