Easy Mediterranean Farro Salad with Mint Vinaigrette

This Mediterranean Farro Salad is healthy, hearty, and made with fresh kale, pomegranate, feta, and a simple and light mint vinaigrette. The farro has a satisfying chew, and the fresh kale, salty feta, and sweet and tart pomegranate seeds brighten up the flavors and textures. It all gets tossed with a minty vinaigrette. This recipe is also easy and quick to make because it uses quick cooking farro, ensuring that eating healthier won’t cut into your down time either.

Ingredients in Mediterranean Farro Salad

• Farro – an ancient whole grain that’s chewy, nutty, and nutritious since it’s full of fiber and protein. See more info about farro below. 
• Pomegranate – they’re sweet and tart and bring the fruity brightness to this salad.
• Feta – crumbly and a little squeaky, it adds a little creaminess.  
• Red onion – we like to slice these thin to keep them less sharp, but they provide a little extra bite. 
• Mint vinaigrette – a simple blend of fresh mint, olive oil, lemon juice, maple syrup, and a touch of maple syrup and salt. 

How to Make This Grain Salad

1. Cook the farro according to the package instructions, then let it cool to a warm, rather than hot, temperature. 
2. While the farro is cooking, add the vinaigrette ingredients to a high sided container and blend with an immersion blender until smooth. You can also use a personal blender or regular blender. If you don’t have those appliances, you can use a food processor or mince the mint finely by hand and whisk it with the other ingredients, but these methods don’t work quite as well.  
3. Add the shredded kale to a bowl and drizzle it with a teaspoon of olive oil. Massage the oil into the kale for 30 seconds to tenderize it and remove some of its bitterness. You can skip this step if you like crunchy, raw kale or if your kale is shredded super finely already.
4. Add the sliced onions, pomegranates, crumbled feta, and farro to the kale and toss everything together. 
5. Toss the grain salad with the mint vinaigrette. You can add as much dressing or as little as you like, but note that the farro will likely soak up some of the vinaigrette.

Our Tips for This Easy Farro Salad

• Cool the farro slightly but not completely. Farro will absorb more of the dressing when it’s warm rather than cold. Although we like to let the farro cool off slightly after cooking so that it’s not wildly hotter than the other ingredients, it shouldn’t be fridge cold or it won’t absorb the dressing. Using warm farro ensures you’ll maximize flavor absorption without getting a soupy dressing at the bottom of the bowl.

• For best flavor, remove the seeds from the pomegranate yourself. This will give you the juiciest, brightest pomegranate notes in the salad. But if you don’t have the time or energy for that, ready-to-eat pomegranate seeds will work fine too. 
• Massage the kale for a softer, more tender bite. All you need to do is add a tiny bit of oil to the cut kale (1 tsp) and run clean hands through it, rubbing it between your fingertips for about 30 seconds to a minute. There’s nothing super wrong with raw kale as it is, but it can be tough and chewy, which may be unpleasant in the salad. If you don’t want to massage it, we’d recommend cutting it into very fine shreds so that it’s still crunchy but easier to chew.

Make-Ahead and Storage

• The vegetarian farro salad will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days after it’s made.
• If making ahead, store the cooked farro, fresh ingredients, and dressing separately until serving. When ready to eat, warm up the farro in the microwave or on the stove, then toss it with the dressing and the other ingredients. This will keep the salad ingredients crisper and fresher longer. 

Variations and Substitutions

• If you don’t have an immersion blender or personal blender of any kind, or any other way to blend this dressing,, you could use our simple lemon vinaigrette instead, like the one we use in our Roasted Vegetable Couscous recipe. This dressing is made by shaking the ingredients in a jar. Add some fresh mint leaves to the salad, and you’ll get a result that’s pretty close to the original recipe with the mint vinaigrette. 
• Make the salad vegan by leaving out the feta or replacing it with a plant-based feta or other cheese. 
• Add grilled chicken, chickpeas, or crispy tofu for a protein boost. 
• Swap out the grains if you can’t find or don’t like farro. This would work with barley, wheat berries, or even quinoa. 

How to Serve This Salad

This winter farro salad is great as a full meal on its own, but it’s also excellent as a healthy side dish to a simple entree. 

Here are some ideas:

• Serve it with grilled or roasted chicken, like our Moroccan Inspired Spiced Chicken. 
• Plate it up alongside fish, like our Sweet and Smoky Salmon. 
• Enjoy it with some pita on the side.
• Add it to your next dinner party spread.

Easy Mediterranean Farro Salad with Mint Vinaigrette

This beautiful, healthy, and hearty Mediterranean farro salad is packed full of nutritious ingredients and bright flavors. Using quick-cook farro really helps this come together fast, making this a great weeknight dinner option.

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Prep Time:20 minutes mins

Cook Time:10 minutes mins

Course: Main Course, Salad

Cuisine: American, California, Mediterranean

Keyword: Easy, Healthy, Quick

Servings: 6

Ingredients

Salad

• 8.8 ounces quick-cook or 10-minute farro makes 3 cups cooked farro
• Water, for boiling farro
• 3 cups shredded Tuscan kale ribs removed, leaves cut into thin strips
• ½ small red onion
• 1 cup feta crumbled
• 1 pomegranate seeds only; about 1-2 cups
• 1 tsp olive oil (optional for massaging kale)

Mint Vinaigrette

• 1 cup loosely packed mint leaves
• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• ¼ to ½ tsp salt

Instructions

• Add the farro to a pot with boiling water. Cook the farro according to the package instructions, drain off the water, then let it cool to a warm, rather than hot, temperature.
  8.8 ounces quick-cook or 10-minute farro, Water, for boiling farro
• While the farro is cooking, add the vinaigrette ingredients to a high sided container and blend with an immersion blender until smooth. You can also use a personal blender or regular blender. If you don’t have those appliances, you can use a food processor or mince the mint finely by hand and whisk it with the other ingredients, but these methods don’t work quite as well.
  1 cup loosely packed mint leaves, ½ cup olive oil, ¼ cup lemon juice, 2 tsp maple syrup, ¼ to ½ tsp salt
• Add the shredded kale to a bowl and drizzle it with a teaspoon of olive oil. Massage the oil into the kale for 30 seconds to tenderize it and remove some of its bitterness. You can skip this step if you like crunchy, raw kale or if your kale is shredded super finely already.
  3 cups shredded Tuscan kale, 1 tsp olive oil (optional for massaging kale)
• Add the sliced onions, pomegranates, crumbled feta, and farro to the kale and toss everything together.
  ½ small red onion, 1 pomegranate, 1 cup feta
• Toss the grain salad with the mint vinaigrette. You can add as much dressing or as little as you like, but note that the farro will likely soak up some of the vinaigrette.

Final Thoughts

This Mediterranean farro salad is approachable and impressive. It’s full of bright flavors, rich colors, and varying textures. It’s also super easy to make, especially if you use quick-cooking farro. You can make this as is, or customize this recipe by adding your favorite protein option or changing up the dressing. However you make it, we’d love to hear from you in a comment below!

More Quick and Easy Salads

• 10 Minute Cucumber Avocado Salad
• Fresh Papaya with Lime and Palm Sugar Syrup
• Simple Fall Salad with Apples and Bacon
• Blue Cheese, Walnut, and Pear Salad