Farro Salad Is The Hearty Selection Your Fall Palate Craves

If you're looking to elevate your grain game and you haven't tried farro, it's time to get on the bandwagon. Bigger than barley and nuttier than brown rice, farro (pronounced "fahr-oh") is an ancient grain that's been around for 10,000 years. It's popping up everywhere on trendy restaurant menus, but you don't need to go out to get in on the tasty trend. Farro isn't difficult to cook at home, and it makes amazing salads that stand up to strong dressings, herbs, and spices. As a bonus, its strong structure won't break down in a salad overnight the way couscous or quinoa would, so you can make a big batch of salad for meal prepping and scoop it up all week.

If you want to eat on-trend and make a farro salad, all you really need is a batch of cooked farro, salad dressing, some vegetables and perhaps some protein. The hardest part of the whole process is deciding on what to add to the mix, because farro is yummy with all kinds of flavors.

Farro has a reputation for being difficult to cook, which isn't entirely true. Yes, it has to cook longer than other grains, such as quinoa, bulgur, and white rice. However, cooking time really depends on the variety you choose. 

Whole, unhusked farro can take up to 30 minutes to cook, while parboiled farro varieties can be ready in 10 minutes flat. The cooking itself isn't actually hard; all you need to do is boil the grains until they're al dente. If you don't have time for that, or you want to step away from the stove to cut your salad ingredients, you can also cook unprocessed farro in a rice cooker on the brown rice setting. Most of the farro at the grocery store is unhusked or parboiled, however — follow the directions on the back of the package to make sure you get the cooking times right.

To make a farro salad, boil your grains, transfer them to a fine mesh sieve, and run cool water over them to stop the cooking process. Then, regardless of what kind of farro you used, let the grains sit in the sieve over the sink for about 10 minutes so that the water drains out. While the grains might seem dry, when you add your salad dressing, which has salt and acid, they'll will release more water, and your salad will get soggy and watery.

Farro is versatile and will be good with any vinaigrette dressing and vegetables you have on hand. If an ingredient is tasty in a pasta or rice salad, it'll probably be good in farro salad, too. 

If you want to get a little creative, however, you can match flavors with the nutty, earthy flavor of the grain by using mushrooms, bitter greens, winter squash (such as butternut or delicata), and toasted nuts or seeds. Farro has a little more structure than other grains, so you can serve your salad hot or cold, and it'll taste great after reheating. The cooked grains are very thirsty, so add an extra tablespoon or two of dressing — the grains will absorb some of the moisture. If you're preparing a batch of farro salad ahead of time, reserve some extra dressing on the side to toss in right before serving so that it doesn't seem dry.

Farro also makes a great addition to any green salad, and it'll fill you up and keep you satisfied longer. Just toss a scoop or two of cooked grains in the bowl when you're adding the dressing and mix everything around. Once you get the hang of cooking it and mixing it into salads, you'll wonder how you ever got along without farro in your life.