Farro Salad

I had an amazing cold farro salad at a potluck; this is my attempt to reproduce it, with some reference to an Italian Farro Salad from Well Plated. They insist on Bob’s Red Mill farro, but since I’ve never found any other brand I can’t comment on that.

Ingredients

Salad

• 1 c. uncooked farro
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 cucumber, diced
• ½ pint small tomatoes, halved (optional)
• ½ c. crumbled feta
• 16 kalamata olives
• 3 T. capers (optional)
• ¼ c. chopped fresh parsley, or ⅛ c. fresh basil, and/or fresh dill to taste

Dressing

• ¼ c. good olive oil
• 2 T. balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• salt, pepper, and/or oregano, to taste
• ½ tsp. honey (optional)
• 1 tsp. prepared mustard (optional)

Directions

1. Boil at least 3 cups of salted water.
2. Add farro; cook at least 30 minutes. Drain.
3. Cool.
4. Mix dressing.
5. Toss all ingredients.
6. Serve at room temperature or cold.

Variants

Fry the farro in oil with shallots before cooking in stock, risotto-style.

Tahini is an interesting dressing variant.

Sweet onion and sun-dried tomato appear frequently in farro recipes, as do nuts (usually pistachios or pecans, but I would keep it Italian with pine nuts). Cannellini are another interesting option.

Sometimes the cheese is parmesan instead of feta.

Often a literal green salad is mixed with farro to make a farro salad.

You can allegedly freeze farro (though not the rest of the salad), if that helps.

Farro can be made in an Instant Pot; the internet is conflicted about proportions but 1 c. farro to 1 ½ c. water or stock seems to work with Bob’s, without much need for draining afterwards. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes, then natural release.