It pains me to say the summer is coming to an end. During these last days of sunshine (who’m I kidding, it’s always sunny in California…and Philadelphia), hot days and meals from the grill, I’m wringing out cool, crisp, refreshing salads before trading them in for comforting crock pot stews and roasts.
Farro, among many other grains sent to me by Bob’s Red Mill, has been calling to me from the pantry. looking for a funky fresh grain salad recipe, I pulled up the Cooking Light website, which is always a great resource for fresh, healthful food ideas, and was instantly drawn to their Easy Quinoa Recipes. I figured I could replace the quinoa with farro and still have a win. Win!
I spotted their Heirlooms & Avocado idea which is just as simple as the title. I replaced the cilantro with mint because I happened to have mint on hand and added lime zest and lime juice for some extra flavor. The farro salad was insanely easy to throw together and perfect for summer picnics and barbecues.
If you’ve never had farro, there are a couple of things you should know. It’s an ancient grain related to wheat (for my gluten-free friends, replace the farro in this recipe with quinoa), with a nutty flavor and texture similar to barley. Farro is great for grain-based salads and can also be added to green salads to make them heartier. It’s pretty dandy if you ask me.
Toss them salads!
Heirloom Tomato & Avocado Farro Salad with Lime-Mint Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked farro
- 1 small heirloom tomato diced
- 1 avocado sliced or diced
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- Zest of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon mint finely chopped
- 1 clove large garlic minced
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Rinse 1 cup of farro. Add farro and 3 cups of water to a saucepan and bring it to a full boil.
- Cover it, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 35 minutes.
- Drain any excess water. Set aside and allow to cool.
- Chop the heirloom tomato and slice or dice the avocado. Toss together with the cooked farro.
- Whisk together the oil, lime juice, zest, mint, garlic, and salt in a small bowl.
- Pour the oil/lime juice mixture over the farro and veggies and toss together.
Nutrition
Looking for more delicious salad recipes to enjoy during the last days of summer? Check it:
Roasted Summer Vegetable Quinoa Salad
Raspberry and Pistachio Salad with Creamy Raspberry Vinaigrette
Roasted Chickpea and Apricot Salad
Love all of these fresh summer flavors! Can’t wait to try this with my local heirlooms 🙂
Ahh, summer can’t be coming to an end. There is still too much awesome summer food to make! I love farro and this recipe sounds perfect!
I love it! So simple and clean, and perfect 🙂 This kind of eatin’ makes your whole body feel good!
I’m super on the farro train after that salad I made earlier this summer! So nutty and yummmmmmmmmy. I’ve got some ancient grains from BRM that I need to get my experimenty hands working with….wish I had you here to experiment with me!
So good- so HEALTHY looking! I LOOOOVE Cooking LIght recipes!
I cannot believe how fast summer has gone by this year. I’m still holding on to summer flavors a bit longer and I love what you did here. Sounds great, Julia!
Hello, beauuuuuuuuuuuutiful! This salad is such a babe!
This looks so yummy! I have to head back to work next week and need to start making things like this to stock up for lunches!