In a tall pot, add enough water to cook the barley (follow the package instructions); you can also add a bay leaf during cooking to pleasantly flavor the barley. Bring to a boil and continue cooking for another 30 minutes.

In the meantime, wash and cut the zucchini and carrots into not too large pieces.

Ten minutes before turning off the barley, we will add the boiled chickpeas, carrot, and zucchini (this way they will remain crunchier). Stir and cover again without lowering the heat and continue cooking for the remaining 10 minutes. During cooking, you will need to check the water level; if it dries out too much, you can add 1 ladle of boiling water.

At the end of cooking, adjust the salt, stir, and turn off. Drain immediately, pour everything into a large bowl, and let cool for about 30 minutes.

When the salad is warm or even completely cooled (decide based on taste and needs), season with enough extra virgin olive oil, finely chopped spring onion, a pinch of ground turmeric (fresh root is also fine), ground pepper, and mix well. If you don’t have turmeric or if you don’t like it, add finely chopped fresh basil leaves. We can enjoy our delicious pearl barley and chickpea salad immediately, or store it in the fridge until serving time.

The extra idea: To give an extra touch to our cereal and legume salad, we can prepare a light sauté with chopped onion and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. As soon as the onion becomes transparent, we will add the barley, toast it in the sauté for a few moments, and then add enough water for cooking, following the instructions above.