Cranberry Ginger Sorghum Salad {Recipe ReDux}

This sorghum salad is made by infusing whole-grain sorghum with fresh cranberries and ginger for a flavorful and nutrient-rich side dish. Serve it alongside your favorite protein for a balanced lunch or dinner.

In honor of the first Recipe ReDux of 2016, this month’s theme is A New Ingredient for the New Year. 

Pick a new ingredient that you’ve been wanting to try… and cook or bake up a new recipe in the new year. Are you curious about nutritional yeast, fish sauce, matcha, teff – or maybe even ugli fruit? Show us how you’re cooking with something new (to you!) in 2016.

While I just purchased my first bottle of nutritional yeast and can’t wait to test it out in the kitchen, the new ingredient I decided to use this month was sorghum. I actually tried sorghum once before a while back when the folks at Wondergrain sent me some samples, but I made it in a very simple way and never tried it again until now. I don’t know what I was waiting for!

Sorghum is one of those ancient grains (like quinoa) that’s gaining in popularity in supermarkets and on restaurant menus. Hopefully it will soon become a staple grain in your house too. It’s a gluten free whole grain that’s naturally high in fiber and iron and a good source of protein.

One of the things I really like about sorghum is that it retains it’s texture and doesn’t get soggy, so it stands up great for soups and stews. Also, similar to quinoa, it has a neutral flavor, so you can pair it with pretty much any ingredients you have on hand. It sort of reminds me of Israeli couscous, but with more fiber!

To make this Cranberry Ginger Sorghum Salad side dish I used whole grain (not pearled) sorghum, vegetable stock, frozen cranberries, and ground ginger – all staples I had on hand. You can easily interchange sorghum for any of the other grains you have in your pantry, but if you’re interested in trying something new, I recommend getting a bag of sorghum and giving it a try!

The inspiration for this combination came from a care package I received from the US Cranberry Marketing committee around the holidays, for which I made a similar side dish using brown rice. I’ve been meaning to recreate it for the blog, but never got around to it until now, so I decided to change it up a bit.

By adding the cranberries to the pot while the sorghum is cooking, they turned into a sort of cranberry sauce that coated the sorghum turning it’s ivory color into this gorgeous cranberry red color. Plus, the cranberries infused the grains so that you don’t just get a hint of cranberry here and there; rather, you get the flavor in every bite.

You can serve this Cranberry Ginger Sorghum Salad as a side dish next to your favorite entree protein or add some beans or crumbled cheese and make it a one-bowl vegetarian meal for a balanced lunch or dinner. Although the sorghum takes about an hour to cook, it’s an easy recipe to put together and requires very little hands-on time.

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Cranberry Ginger Sorghum Salad

Yield: 6

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

This sorghum salad is made by infusing whole-grain sorghum with fresh cranberries and ginger for a flavorful and nutrient-rich side dish. Serve it alongside your favorite protein for a balanced lunch or dinner.

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Ingredients

• 1 quart low-sodium vegetable stock
• 1 cup whole grain sorghum
• 1 cup chopped fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup

Instructions

1. Bring stock to a boil in a medium pot. Add sorghum and bring to a full boil for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook approximately 35 minutes.
2. When water is reduced to the level of the grain, stir in the chopped cranberries. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook about 12 to 15 minutes until water is completely absorbed.
3. Turn off the heat and stir in green onions, ground ginger, orange juice, salt, and syrup. Serve hot or room temperature.

What new ingredients are you cooking with this year?

Get some inspiration from my fellow Recipe ReDuxers below!

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