Kale is the plant that keeps giving when the rest of the vegetable patch has given up — pick the lower leaves from October onward and the crown keeps throwing new ones until the hardest frosts, which in fact sweeten the leaves as the plant floods its cells with sugars to avoid freezing. Pair those dark, mineral leaves with grapes roasted until their skins split and their juice turns syrupy, and you have a bowl that eats like a main course: chewy barley, soft sweet-sour fruit, salty cheese and a rattle of toasted buckwheat on top.
9 oz (250 g) cavolo nero or curly kale, thick stalks stripped out
1 cup (200 g) pearl barley (or farro, spelt or short-grain brown rice)
10½ oz (300 g) seedless red grapes, left in small clusters
4 tbsp (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil, divided
3 sprigs fresh thyme (or ½ tsp dried)
2 tbsp (30 ml) red wine vinegar, divided
¼ cup (40 g) raw buckwheat groats (or sunflower seeds)
1 small red onion, about 3 oz (80 g), sliced paper-thin
2 tsp (10 g) Dijon mustard
1 tsp (7 g) runny honey or maple syrup
3½ oz (100 g) feta, or a firm goat cheese
1 tsp fine sea salt, plus flaky salt and coarse black pepper to finish
The Recipe
Simmer the barley in plenty of well-salted water for 25–30 minutes, until the grains are tender but still push back against your teeth — pearl barley turns pasty past that point and the bowl loses its structure. Drain, spread on a tray and toss with 1 tbsp of the olive oil while still steaming: warm starch absorbs fat and seasoning, cold starch repels it.
While the barley cooks, heat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). Toss the grape clusters with 1 tbsp oil, the thyme and 1 tbsp of the vinegar, spread them in a single layer in a small tray and roast for 20–25 minutes. They are ready when the skins have split, the flesh has slumped and the juices at the edges of the tray have gone sticky and dark. Do not crowd them — grapes piled together steam and stay watery instead of concentrating.
Scrape every drop of the tray juices into a bowl and set aside. This caramelised grape syrup is the backbone of the dressing and no bottled ingredient replaces it.
Toast the buckwheat groats in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 4–5 minutes, shaking often. Listen rather than look: they start to crackle faintly and smell like toasted bread just as they turn one shade darker. Tip them straight onto a cold plate, because residual pan heat will take them to bitter in under a minute.
Steep the sliced red onion in the remaining 1 tbsp vinegar with a pinch of salt for at least 10 minutes. The acid strips out the raw sulphurous bite and turns the slices bright magenta, so they read as a condiment rather than an ambush.
Shred the kale leaves into ribbons no wider than ¼ inch (5 mm), put them in a large bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp fine salt, and massage with both hands for a full 2 minutes, squeezing and rubbing as if wringing out a cloth. The volume halves, the leaves turn glossy and deep green and droplets of water appear on your palms. Do not skip this step, and do not add the vinegar yet — acid at this stage would turn the chlorophyll a dull olive-khaki.
Whisk the reserved grape juices with the Dijon, honey, the last 1 tbsp olive oil and the onion’s pickling vinegar. Taste: it should be sharp enough to make you blink, since barley and kale both swallow acidity.
Fold the barley through the kale, pour over the dressing and turn everything thoroughly, then let it sit 10 minutes so the grains soften the leaves and the leaves perfume the grains. Pull the roasted grapes off their stems and scatter over with the pickled onion, crumbled feta, the toasted buckwheat, flaky salt and a heavy grind of black pepper. Serve at room temperature, never fridge-cold — chilled olive oil goes waxy and mutes the grape syrup.
