Farro Salad makes a flavorful, healthy dish that comes together in under an hour. This salad is perfect as a light lunch or serve as a side!
This Salad Recipe can stand alone at mealtime, but would also make a delicious addition to a classic dinner recipe. Give my Beet Salad and Winter Pear Salad a try too!
Why You’ll Love This Salad?
- Easily prepped salad that the family can enjoy in 45 minutes.
- Farro is rich in protein which makes this salad a healthy meal that will keep you full.
Sabrina’s Farro Salad Recipe
Farro Salad is an excellent dish to add to your meal rotation if you’re trying to eat healthier. This grain is packed with important nutrients and is great for weight loss. So many foods recommended for healthy eating, like salads and veggies, are excellent but not that filling. With this salad, you can enjoy a delicious, healthy meal, and you won’t just end up being hungry again an hour later. The Farro is rich in protein and very filling. This salad is more than just healthy. It’s also delicious.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Farro:
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup whole grain farro
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt , divided
- 1 bay leaf
Vinaigrette:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 large shallot , minced
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
Salad:
- 3 cups arugula
- 1 Granny Smith apple , cored and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese , shaved
- 1/2 cup toasted pecans , chopped
Instructions
Farro:
- Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan.
- Add the farro, ½ teaspoon Kosher salt, and the bay leaf. Lower heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes until broth is completely reduced, then remove from heat.
Vinaigrette:
- To make the dressing, mix the cooled olive oil with the vinegar, mustard, honey, 1 teaspoon Kosher salt and pepper in a medium bowl.
Salad:
- Place the farro, arugula, apple, parmesan cheese, and pecans in a serving bowl and top with the dressing.
- Toss the salad until well coated and serve.
Nutrition
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Note from Sabrina
Be sure to let the cooked farro cool completely before adding it to your salad. Warm farro can wilt the vegetables and make the dressing absorb too quickly. Once cooled, it keeps the salad fresh, crisp, and flavorful, and gives the dressing a chance to coat everything evenly!
Table of contents
About this Recipe
The Farro base has a rich, nutty, comforting flavor. Then you’ll add fresh veggies and fruits like arugula and green apples, which create a sharp and delicious blend of flavors over the more neutral farro base. Then add pecans and a homemade balsamic dressing to finish the amazing salad. The dressing is so easy to make, and you can come back to this recipe to make the dressing on its own to top off other recipes. The apple cider vinaigrette would taste amazing on a lot of other salads.
Ingredients
- Farro: Use whole-grain farro for this easy recipe. Whole grain farro still has the bran attached, making it even more nutritious. However, you can get pearled farro without the bran. The farro makes the salad bowl extra filling and healthy.
- Chicken Broth: Using chicken broth for the cooking liquid enhances the savory flavor of the salad. As the farro cooks, it absorbs savory, salty flavor from the broth, which makes the whole dish absolutely delicious.
- Vinegar: Apple cider vinegar is an excellent option to make a sweet and zesty vinaigrette dressing. If you don’t have apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, or wine vinegar make good substitutes.
- Olive Oil: Whisk the vinegar and other dressing ingredients into ⅓ cup virgin olive oil. The oil makes a rich, smooth mixture and makes it easy for the dressing to spread and coat the entire salad recipe.
- Arugula: Arugula is a fresh and healthy green perfect for this salad recipe. It has a slightly peppery flavor which makes it stand out from the nutty farro and goes well with the zesty vinaigrette dressing.
- Apples: Adding chopped apples is a great way to add more flavor and texture to your salad. Green Granny Smith apples taste amazing because they’re tart and wonderfully crisp. You could use other varieties of apples if you prefer. If you prep the apple pieces in advance, drizzle fresh lemon juice over the pieces to keep them from browning.
- Parmesan: Shaved parmesan is the perfect cheese topping for this salad because its nutty, sharp flavor plays perfectly off of the other salad ingredients.
- Pecans: Finish the delicious dish by adding chopped, toasted pecans over the top. The nuts add extra protein and delicious crunchy bites. Using roasted nuts also enhances the flavor, and the rich, buttery flavor contrasts wonderfully with the fresh ingredients.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes, you can, just store the cooked farro, dressing, and salad ingredients separately in airtight containers in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to serve, simply toss everything together for a fresh, flavorful salad!
Serving Ideas
You can serve a big bowl of Farro Salad to share or divide the recipe into serving-sized containers for meal prep. This salad makes a great main dish on its own. However, you can also portion it smaller to make it into a side dish to go along with another main dish. It would make a delicious addition to classic dinner recipes such as Rosemary Chicken or Herb Crusted Pork Loin. Go ahead and add some Garlic Butter Roasted Sweet Potatoes too!
How to Store
- Serve: Serve this salad recipe fresh and enjoy, you don’t want to leave the fresh salad sitting out at room temperature for more than a couple of hours, or it will start to go bad.
- Store: If you don’t finish the salad, you can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days. However, if you want to prep the recipe in advance, you can keep the cooked farro, dressing, and other salad ingredients in separate airtight containers. Then the recipe will stay good for about 5 days, and you can toss everything together before serving.
- Freeze: You can also freeze cooked farro separately from the rest of the salad. To freeze the farro, lay the grains on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place the pan in the freezer for 2 hours. Then transfer the farro to a freezer bag or another airtight container to keep frozen for up to 2 months. Let the farro thoroughly thaw before serving.
Frequent Questions
Farro is a type of hulled wheat. It has a nutty flavor and chewy texture and is quite filling. It’s often used in salads, soups, or served as a side dish similar to rice.
Absolutely! Farro is a great way to make salads and other dishes more filling as well as add important nutrients to your diet. The hearty grain is a good source of fiber, iron, protein, magnesium, and essential antioxidants. It’s also been found to have many health benefits, including aiding in weight loss, boosting immunity, and regulating blood glucose levels. Overall, it’s an excellent ingredient to add to your diet.
Yes. Farro is a very healthy grain packed with vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber. It’s much healthier than white or brown rice. You can often use farro as a substitute for rice and get a healthier and just as delicious recipe.
Quinoa comes from a flowering plant and can be used in soups and salads just like farro can. Both are healthy ingredients to bring into your diet, and they each have their own unique benefit. Comparing them to one another, farro contains more carbohydrates. This makes it a good source of energy, though if you’re avoiding carbs, you may prefer quinoa. Farro is also a better source of calcium and, overall, has more vitamins and nutrients.
Variations
- Vegetable Broth: Cooking the farro in chicken broth instead of water is an easy way to enhance the flavor. However, if you want to keep the recipe vegetarian, you won’t want to use chicken broth. An easy swap is using vegetable broth. That way, you can still add amazing flavor to the farro but not use any meat ingredients.
- Cheese: You can enjoy this salad with different kinds of cheese. Feta cheese, goat cheese, or blue cheese are amazing soft cheeses that you could add to the dish.
- Add-ins: The great thing about salad recipes is you can easily swap out and add more ingredients according to your taste. If you prefer, you can leave out the apples and instead add vegetables like grape tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onion. You could also add herby flavor to the beautiful dish with fresh mint, dill, or parsley.
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