How to make Farmhouse Farro Salad? (A perfect fall side dish)

• Recipe: Farmhouse Farro Salad
• Writer: Lizzie Green
• Content-Type: Food Blog

This substantial farro salad is packed with filling ingredients including sweet potatoes, apples, and greens.

It has ingredients that are sweet, salty, crunchy, and nutty, making it an ideal side dish or supper on its own for the fall season.

My feelings toward farro can be described as conflicted. It takes forever to make, and quinoa is quicker, but the chewy, nutty grains provide a wonderful heartiness to this non-wimpy fall salad.

This salad is not for the faint of heart. The only catch is that you need to plan ahead in order to prepare farro; in fact, it’s easiest to make a large quantity of it and keep it on hand for the entire week.

Normally, I’m not that organized, but it just so happened that I cooked up some farro the day before the delivery of my Farmhouse vegetables, so here we are… a farro salad that included an excessive number of vegetables to warrant inclusion in the subject line of this post.

Farro Salad Recipe Ingredients

This recipe for farro salad has all of my favorite flavors: sweet, salty, crunchy, and nutty… What makes it so darn good are the following:

• Sweet potatoes that have been roasted, giving them a toasted flavor and a velvety texture
• Carrot ribbons that have been peeled to provide a bright and crisp contrast to the sweetness of the sweet potatoes
• Apples are diced, for the sweet flavor of autumn and the crisp, juicy texture they impart.
• Plenty of greens to bring out the other colors! I combined kale and salad greens because that was all that I had available, but you are welcome to use any one of them on its own if you don’t have both.
• Radishes, which add a little bite and crunch.
• Parsley, which lends a flavor that is bright and clean. The use of thyme is also recommended.
• Almonds, to add a satisfying crunch and a nutty flavor boost. Pecans, walnuts, or pepitas that have been toasted would also be delicious in this.
• And to finish it all off, a vinaigrette made with apple cider and Dijon mustard. Yum!

In the event that you do not adhere to a vegan diet, crumbled feta or Parmesan shavings would be a wonderful addition to this dish.

Serving Suggestions for the Farro Salad

The first time we had this salad was for dinner, and then the next two days in a row, I had it for lunch. Make it ahead of time for the holidays or meal prep it for lunches. Either way, it’s a winner.

You have up to two days to prepare all of the components, but for the best texture, I recommend waiting until the very end to add the lighter salad greens and roasting the sweet potatoes right before you plan to serve them.

Along with other savory vegetable dishes like roasted beets, green beans, and delicata squash, this farro salad would be a gorgeous addition to your Thanksgiving table.

Cornbread stuffing (or regular stuffing, if that’s more your thing) and cauliflower mashed potatoes are two components that simply cannot be omitted from the meal.

Try stuffed acorn squash or a traditional lasagna if you’re looking for some inspiration for main dishes that are vegetarian. Also, for dessert, you absolutely must have apple pie.

Farmhouse Farro Salad

This substantial farro salad is perfect for Thanksgiving as a side dish or can stand on its own as a supper option. In place of farro, you might try using quinoa if you have to avoid gluten.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked farro (see notes)
• 1 sweet potato, chopped into cubes
• A few leaves of kale, chopped or torn
• 2-3 cups salad greens
• 1-2 carrots, peeled into ribbons
• 1 apple, diced
• A few radishes, sliced
• A small handful of chopped parsley
• ½ cup chopped & toasted almonds

apple cider Dijon vinaigrette:

• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• optional: ½ teaspoon maple syrup or a big squeeze of orange
• Sea salt and fresh black pepper

Instructions

1. Turn the oven temperature up to 400 degrees. Mix the cubes of sweet potato with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Roast for about thirty-five minutes, or until the meat is golden brown.
2. Mix the ingredients for the dressing together with a whisk.
3. In a large bowl, give the kale some of the dressing and massage it gently with your hands until the kale begins to wilt. After that, stir in the farro.
4. Toss the greens, carrots, apple, radishes, parsley, and almonds with as much of the dressing as you see fit after adding them. After tasting it, season it with salt and pepper as desired.

Notes

• I used the brown rice option on my rice cooker to prepare my farro for approximately forty-five minutes. Three cups of water for every one cup of farro. You might also cook the farro on the stove for forty minutes to an hour, or until it reaches the desired texture of chewy tenderness. (You should give it a look every once in a while to make sure that it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.) To reduce the amount of time required to cook farro, soak it in water for 12 hours. Create a large quantity, place the remaining dressing in the refrigerator, and use it to dress salads throughout the week.
• Advice for getting everything ready in advance: everything can be prepared and kept in the refrigerator for up to two days in advance. I would recommend waiting until the very end to add the lighter salad greens and roasting the sweet potatoes until just before you are ready to serve them. This will provide the nicest possible texture.