5 Grain & Bean Salad

1 3/4 cups - cooked jasmine rice
2 cups - cooked quinoa
1/4 cup - cooked barley (more if you like, that's all I had on hand)
1 can (594ml) mixed beans (kidney, chick peas, romano, etc) or any beans you like
6 tbsp hulled hemp seeds
6 tbsp chia seeds
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 medium stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 any mix of any other bell pepper, chopped
1 cup total of Fresh Herbs of your choice. I used:
- parsley
- chives
- garlic chives
- pineapple sage
- spicy basil
- thai basil
- lime basil
- sweet basil
- greek oregano
- mint
8 tbsp greek salad dressing
Optional: 2 cups low sodium, reduced fat chicken broth (to cook the grains in)

You can cook the rice, quinoa & barley in the chicken broth, if you choose. I cooked extras of the grain mixture to use for something else.

You can cook the rice, quinoa & barley together, following the instructions (usually add to boiling water, stir & cover. Reduce heat to simmer for 20 min. Remove from heat & let stand covered for 10 min).
Fluff with a fork & allow to cool completely.
While grains are cooling, chop the rest of the ingredients.
Rinse the can of beans under cold running water.
Combine everything together & chill for several hours to allow the flavours to mature.
Serve chilled.

Serving Size: makes 16 1/2 cup servings

Number of Servings: 16

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user T1CKIE.