Shake up your lunch routine with this delicious Farro Salad! This Farro Salad recipe with olives, capers, cherry tomatoes and zucchini ribbons made extra flavourful by adding loads of herbs and dressing with French vinaigrette.
If you are looking for a chicken recipe to compliment this salad, check out my Spatchcock Chicken in Spicy Yogurt Sauce.
Another summer week, another salad recipe but trust me this farro salad is not JUST another salad. I’ve discovered the farro grain a couple of years ago and I was instantly smitten with its earthy taste.
I am a huge fan of adding healthy grains to my salads to give them more substance and nutritious value. So it’s no wonder I would want more variety apart from quinoa.
I mix it up all the time by using different things like millet, buckwheat, lentils, beans, and quinoa. They make salads so satisfying and loaded with extra nutrients!
This farro salad is no exception. Brad’s been so happy taking it to work for his lunches and then raving about it.
I consider that a personal victory since my husband loves his meat and this salad is quite meatless yet very filling and extremely satisfying.
Farro salad recipe ingredients
Apart from farro this recipe consists of very normal, everyday ingredients like tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, except that I replaced cucumber with zucchini ribbons.
I quite like using new crop tiny zucchini raw in the summer. They are so crunchy and fresh!
You might think them tasteless, which could be the case if they are not properly flavoured, but they also become absolutely delicious at the touch of a well-made vinaigrette, which brings me to my next point.
Simple vinaigrette recipe for salads
French Vinaigrette might sound posh but in reality it’s the simplest thing ever!
Just mix olive oil, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard, and a tiny amount of garlic with salt and pepper. Shake well and enjoy over salads or grilled vegetables.
I’ve stopped buying bottled dressings years ago. When we first moved to the UK I couldn’t find any salad dressings I was used to, so I gave up and started making my own.
What I discovered is that salads with homemade dressings taste miles better, are cheaper and better for you since you know exactly what’s in there!
I usually double or even triple the recipe I am sharing today, change it up weekly by adding different combination of herbs and store it in a jam jar in the fridge, which lasts us about one week.
Farro Salad Ingredient Options
The vegetable combination for this farro salad is limitless!
You can add bell peppers, cucumbers, radishes, snap peas, quite literally anything your heart desires! Feta cheese is also an excellent addition to this salad!
For more grain based salads check out my
The last one is not technically a grain but still falls in the category of filling salads.
Ingredients
For the French Vinaigrette
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 clove garlic minced
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp fresh or dried herbs of your choice optional
For the Farro Salad
- 1 can 14oz/400g white beans, butter beans or cannellini beans, drained
- 2 cups/200g farro cooked
- 1 small zucchini shaved into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
- 6-7 red and yellow cherry tomatoes
- 1 tbsp capers
- 5-6 Kalamata olives pitted and halved
- 1/4 red onion sliced
- 1 tbsp fresh mint chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh basil sliced
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Cook the farro grain according to package instructions, drain and cool.
- In a large bowl combine all the French vinaigrette ingredients, mix with a whisk until the dressing is emulsified, then add the beans and cooled farro, let it sit for 10-15 minutes for the ingredients to absorb the flavour of the vinaigrette.
- Then add the remaining ingredients and mix gently until combined.
- Add more salt if needed.
Lindsey says
October 15, 2018 at 11:53 pmThis looks delicious! I can’t wait to make it.
One note: I think the protein information at the botttom may be wrong. There’s definitely more than 1 gram of protein in a serving of this! 3.5 oz of beans (14 oz divided by 4) equals about 19 grams of protein, and 6 grams of protein in 50 oz of farro (200 divided by 4).
vikalinka says
October 16, 2018 at 8:45 amHi Lindsey, I recalculated the nutritional information and I ended up with 4g of protein per serving for 6 servings. When you buy a can of beans or anything canned the weight indicated is always undrained, so some of it is liquid. That being said, I cannot claim 100% accuracy with the nutritional information since I am not a registered dietitian. I use an automated program that calculates nutritional info based on their own database, so this info is only an approximate calculation, that should not be used by people with strict dietary requirements. I simply don’t have the capacity to provide more than that. I hope this makes sense! 🙂
kellie@foodtoglow says
August 6, 2017 at 5:28 pmDressing makes or breaks a salad so it is always worth making your own, adjust to your taste. The classic French vinaigrette is what I tend to do too. And what a way you’ve used it in this lovely grainy, satisfying recipe.As much a treat for the eye as stomach 🙂
vikalinka says
August 7, 2017 at 9:18 amThanks so much, Kellie! I completely agree about dressings, they take hardly any time at all and taste so much fresher!