Can you tell I am enthralled with summer produce?
It has been avocado, berry, peach and mango galore. And the excitement over my luscious, in-season fruits is beyond real. Does anyone else get this ecstatic over biting into a juicy yellow mango?
Speaking of mangos something has got me craving a good mango margarita. My relationship with cocktails is funny. I am not a crazy party-girl drinker in the slightest but when it does come to drinking, the most appealing part is thinking of fun flavors to go along with a party theme.
So my to-do list is to have a mexican themed tapa night and serve these mango chili margaritas to go along with it. Wanna join?
To balance out all this margarita-drinking (more like margarita daydreaming), my lunches have been packed with this fiber fueled barley medley. The title of this recipe was almost “Avocado, Mango & Chickpea Barley Salad” then after glancing at it, my instincts immediately changed it to medley. Salad sounds too boring leaf-lettuce-y.
This is no plain jane green salad. This is a sha-bang of a grain filled medley.
Have you had barley before? The first time I tried it was at my favorite restaurant of all time, Houston’s. They had this side dish of barley mixed with almonds, parsley, feta, grape tomatoes and all the yummy mediterranean flavors.
It was a mind-blowing experience. Then they switched out barley for couscous and my heart was broken. Le sigh.
Ever since that experience though my body has gravitated towards this crunchy grain, along with farro. They are VERY similar and I die over their texture + nutty flavor. What really gears me towards these hearty carbs are how versatile they are. In this case, we’re going with a summer inspired theme due to my latest obsession with fruit + avocado + cheese.
You can easily add in some chicken to this if that’s your jam or eat a big bowl of it as is because even without a meat substance these bowls of barley love are packed with protein. Winner-Winner barley bowl dinnaahh 
Avocado, Mango & Chickpea Barley Medley
- Yield: Makes 4–6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked barley
- 2 mangos, chopped (mine were huge!)
- 2 avocados, diced
- 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup aged cheddar cheese, diced (I used Cabot Aged Cheddar)
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbsp white balsamic (I used strawberry flavor)
- Juice from 1 lemon
- Himalayan pink sea salt to taste
- 1/4–1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts
Instructions
- After chopping and dicing up your mangos and avocados, toss together the barley, fruit, avocados chickpeas and aged cheddar cubes. Drizzle in extra virgin olive oil, balsamic, lemon juice and sea salt. Fold in the chopped hazelnuts and serve! You’re basically just mixing together everything until fully combined. It’s that easy!