It’s a tasty, satisfying, and colorful recipe. It’s excellent to make ahead and bring to potlucks, barbecues, cookouts, and picnics or as a healthy lunch or quick dinner.

Ingredients & Substitutions

Quick Italian Dressing

How to make farro salad

Variations

Serving Suggestions

Storage

Questions

More Salad Recipes

It’s a burst of freshness, crunch, and wholesomeness at every bite! Farro is an ancient grain; you’ll love its nutty flavor, irresistible chewy texture, and many health benefits. Thanks to its chewy al dente texture and wholesome nutrition is excellent for making salads. We are sure you’ll feel fabulous and glowing after eating our farro salad! In most supermarkets, you can easily find it as Farro or pearled Farro, often imported from Italy. Pearled farro is our favorite for farro salad because compared to whole farro, it takes only 15 to 25 minutes to cook and keeps “al dente.” Farro is sold dry and, like other grains, needs to be boiled in hot water or broth before you can eat it. In this recipe, you can substitute other whole grains or pseudo-grains such as brown rice, barley, quinoa, and buckwheat for the farro, although they won’t have the same satisfying chewy texture.

Vegetable broth

For this farro salad recipe, we boil the farro in reduced-sodium vegetable broth to infuse more flavor into the grain. Add a couple of thyme sprigs or bay leaves to the broth for even more flavor. Substitute water for vegetable broth.

Vegetables

Cucumber: substitute thinly sliced radishes or celery. Cherry tomatoes: substitute plum, roma, or vine tomatoes. Green bell pepper: substitute yellow, orange, or red bell pepper. Canned corn: substitute frozen corn, baby corn, or green peas. Black olives: substitute green, Kalamata olives, Gaeta olives, capers, marinated artichoke hearts, or sun-dried tomatoes. Red onion: substitute green onions or shallots. Chickpeas: substitute cannellini beans, black beans, lentils, or red kidney beans.

Feel free to swap the veggies around with what you have available. To make a tasty and nutritious salad, try to include as many colors and textures as possible.

Fresh herbs

We use flat-leaf parsley to give the salad a Mediterranean spin. You can substitute fresh mint, dill, chives, cilantro, and basil for the parsley.

Feta (optional)

Feta is optional. Most of the time, we don’t add it because the salad is fulfilling and tasty. You can use regular feta cheese or non-dairy feta. Substitute feta with shaved parmesan cheese, mozzarella balls, goat cheese, or non-dairy alternatives. Tip: we cook one part of pearled farro in three parts of liquid. For instance, if you cook 1 cup of farro, you’ll need 3 cups of vegetable broth. Cook the farro on a gentle simmer until it absorbs all broth and it’s cooked al dente, stirring occasionally. If necessary, add more vegetable broth. Spread the cooked farro onto a clean baking tray to help it cool down and not overcook. Tip: avoid cooling down the farro under running water. The water will remove flavor and slightly change the texture.

2: Prep the veggies

While the farro cooks, chop the cherry tomatoes in half, dice the green bell pepper, chop the cucumber, slice the black olives, drain the canned corn, finely chop the red onion and parsley, and rinse the chickpeas.

3: Make the dressing

To a small jar, add all ingredients for the dressing: olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, dried oregano, salt, and black pepper. Shake well till combined. Whisk the ingredients in a small bowl if you don’t have a jar.

4: Mix the farro salad

Add the cooked farro, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, green bell pepper, red onion, corn, olives, chickpeas, parsley, and dressing to a large mixing bowl. Toss well, then taste and adjust for salt before serving. Tip: If you have the time, let the farro salad sit for 15 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld.

Mediterranean farro salad

This farro salad with roasted veggies is absolutely delicious and inspired by Mediterranean cuisine. To make it, we use roasted eggplants, zucchini, onions, jarred roasted bell peppers, pistachios, parsley, and a ground cumin and paprika dressing that is out of this world. Check out our Mediterranean farro salad recipe.

Barley salad

Barley is another delicious whole grain with a similar texture and taste to farro. It’s an excellent substitute for farro to make a salad. Check out our barley salad recipe. Sometimes we serve it with something creamy next to it; for example, try adding a dollop of these delicious spreads:

Guacamole (red onion, avocado, lime juice, salt, garlic, etc.) Hummus (chickpea, tahini, salt, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, water, etc.) Tzatziki (Greek-style yogurt, cucumber, garlic, mint, dill, lemon, etc.) Baba Ganoush (eggplant dip with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, etc.) Muhammara (red pepper, walnuts, toamtoes, molasses, etc.) Egg-free mayonnaise (soy milk, vegetable oil, olive oil, mustard, garlic, etc.)

As an appetizer or side dish

In Italy, farro salad is often served in restaurants in smaller portions as a starter with:

Guacamole

Hummus

Tzatziki

Baba Ganoush Recipe

Tomato Bruschetta Crostini with olive tapenade Grilled eggplant and grilled zucchini Zucchini frittata (ours is without eggs)

Bruschetta

Crostini Recipe

Vegan frittata – no eggs, no tofu

Grilled Eggplant

Refrigerator: store farro salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Serve cold straight out of the refrigerator, or let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving it. Freezer: we do not recommend freezing the salad because of the fresh veggies. However, you can freeze the cooked farro for up to 3 months. To freeze cooked farro, let it cool down at room temperature, then put it in freezer-friendly ziplock bags in small portions (we freeze 2 portions in one bag) and freeze. Thaw in the fridge overnight, microwave, or boil for 2 minutes.

Sweet potato salad (roasted sweet potato, avocado, cranberries, arugula, etc.) Moroccan carrot salad (parsley, cumin, carrots, shaved almonds, olive oil, etc.) Black bean salad (black beans, corn, bell pepper, avocado, sweet potato, etc.) Rice salad (olives, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, rice, parsley, etc.) Couscous salad (couscous, chickpeas, bell pepper, olives, lemon, etc.) Brussels sprouts salad: (shaved Brussels sprouts, mustard dressing, etc.)

Sweet Potato Salad

Moroccan Carrot Salad

Avocado Salad

Black Bean Salad

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