Farro salad with roasted cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, and mint.
For those of you who haven’t ever heard of farro salad, or even farro itself, I am about to introduce you to on of my favorite quick and easy dinners. Farro is a grain much like rice or quinoa, and it is often cooked into risotto, in place of rice, or as a farro salad – my recipe for today. My farro salad has herbs, veggies, and a fresh and light dressing, just like any salad should have. But instead of using greens as the base, I used this nutty and delicious grain. The farro absorbs the dressing perfectly so you get a burst of flavor in every bite, plus unlike a traditional salad which gets soggy when left over, my farro salad is even better the next day after the grains have had a chance to absorb even more delicious flavor. The inspiration for this farro salad comes from my family’s recent trip to visit our family in Italy; apparently farro is a staple in the Southern Italian’s diet, and now is in mine as well.
To me, farro is what would come about if quinoa, brown rice, and risotto had a baby. It has the same nutty and grainy taste as quinoa, with all the same health benefits plus even more calcium and protein. However the grains themselves are much bigger than quinoa, and they don’t have that “pop” that some people seem to not like about quinoa, making farro more similar to brown rice. But my absolute favorite part about farro? It cooks up almost exactly like risotto, making it a super healthy, paleo, and much lower carb replacement for all your pasta cravings. Just like risotto, it perfectly absorbs whatever liquid you cook it in or dress it with, which makes if perfect for a farro salad. Plus its really hard to overcook it, so it almost always retains that great al dente crunch that I love so much about pasta and risotto. For more info on farro, which is actually a pretty complicated grain with a rich history, check out this NPR article about farro. Just in case you don’t want to read the article, I want to share one very important piece of information that I learned form it: when purchasing farro make sure to get the semi pearled or pearled variety, which will take a significantly shorter time to cook than whole farro.
My dad, his girlfriend Nicole, my aunt Camille, and my uncle Cliff returned not long ago from a two week trip to Southern Italy to visit our cousins in the tiny mountainside town where my great grandfather was born. They came back bursting with stories of our family and friends from the other side of the globe, particularly of our cousin Christine, who, in typical Italian fashion, was non-stop piling food on everybody’s plates. Needless to say, their trip was one that was focused heavily around incredible food, and thankfully for me, fantastic recipes. My dad told me that farro and faro salad was something that they saw on menus all over Southern Italy, which makes sense since farro has been cultivated in Italy for centuries. Garnering inspiration from all the farro salad dishes he had in Italy, my dad brought me a bag of farro so that I could recreate some of those traditional Italian recipes for my blog – what a supportive father!
The night that I made this dish it seemed like all of the culinary stars had aligned to bring me all the perfect ingredients for this farro salad. Along with the farro that my dad had brought me, I had a pint of cherry tomatoes originally destined for a salad sitting in my fridge. I decided to roast the tomatoes to cover the fact that they had been sitting there a tad too long, but also to bring out that intensely sweet and juicy flavor. I also happen to have a big chunk of feta cheese left over from topping some homemade hummus from the night before, and figured the salty cheese would be the perfect offset for the sweet, plump tomatoes. And in an intense stroke of luck, my dad had also brought me a fresh bunch of mint grown by his girlfriend Nicole in her Brooklyn garden, which I used to bring the perfect freshness to the farro salad.
Roasted cherry tomatoes fresh from the oven.
With just a few simple ingredients, you’ll have this farro salad coming together in no time. I’ve heard some people complain that farro takes too long to cook or that it never seems to actually cook through, but I cook it for just about 25 minutes in some chicken or veggie stock; it does still have somewhat of a bite to it that may cause some people to think its undercooked, but to an Italian American like me that just means its perfectly al dente. While the farro was cooking, I roasted my cherry tomatoes in a cast iron skillet until they were savory and browned on the outside but just about ready to burst with sweetness. The farro salad all comes together with crumbled feta, ribbons of fresh mint, and a dressing made with some of the stock used to cook the farro, olive oil, and fresh lemon juice and zest. I can’t wait for you to try my take on the traditional Southern Italian farro salad, and I can’t wait to share more recipes inspired by my family’s recent trip!
- 1 cup of farro
- 3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
- 1-2 pints of cherry tomatoes
- ½ lb feta cheese, crumbled or cubed
- fresh springs of mint, to taste, minced
- 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon of dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- For the dressing:
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 lemon
- Salt and pepper
- Stock reserved from cooking the farro
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Start cooking the farro first, since it will take the longest to cook. Add the farro to a small pot with the stock, bring it to a boil, and cover and allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes, until farro is tender but still maintains an al dente bite.
- While the farro is cooking, roast your cherry tomatoes. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a cast iron skillet over hight heat. Add the cherry tomatoes, dried oregano, dried parsley, and salt and pepper. Cook the cherry tomatoes in the pan until they are browned and slightly blistered on the outside, about 5 minutes, and then transfer them to the oven to continue cooking, an additional 10 minutes.
- When the farro is tender, drain the excess stock but retain about ¼ of a cup of stock for making the dressing.
- Make the dressing: whisk together the excess cooking stock, olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of lemon zest, and salt and pepper to taste.
- Combine the farro, dressing, roasted cherry tomatoes, feta, and fresh mint to make your farro salad. Serve immediately at room temperature, or store in the fridge for up to 3 days before serving.
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