I’m experimenting with a new grain this week, farro, and the first thing I wanted to make was a salad. Farro is a delightful chewy grain with a neutral flavor that will make any salad very “meal” worthy. I decided to go a mediterranean route with tomato, cucumber, seasoned and sautéed chickpeas, and my favorite creamy (and vegan) tahini dressing. This Mediterranean Farro Salad was pretty quick to prepare and I can keep the ingredients in the fridge all week to assemble whenever I want a fresh salad.
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What is Farro?
Farro is an “ancient grain” with a delightfully chewy texture and nutty flavor. It’s packed with protein and fiber, but has a neutral flavor, which makes it a great addition to salads, bowl meals, skillets, and more. Farro isn’t quite as popular in the U.S. as other grains, so you’re more likely to find it at health food stores or international markets.
How Do You Cook Farro?
Farro is really easy to cook. Like other grains, you simply boil it in water until tender. I suggest making a batch of farro to use throughout the week, so you don’t have to cook it fresh every night. This salad recipe assumes you have farro already cooked. For detailed cooking instructions, check my tutorial on How to Cook Farro.
Can I Use a Different Grain?
Absolutely! If you don’t like farro or can’t find it in your area, you can use bulgur (cracked wheat), couscous, brown rice, or even quinoa in place of the farro.
Mediterranean Farro Salad with Spiced Chickpeas
Servings 4Ingredients
DRESSING
- 1/3 cup tahini ($1.13)
- 1/3 cup water ($0.00)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice ($0.18)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper ($0.03)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
SPICED CHICKPEAS
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas ($1.15)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.12)
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder ($0.03)
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional) ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked black pepper (10-15 cranks of a mill) ($0.03)
- Salt to taste ($0.02)
SALAD
- 3 cups cooked farro (or other grain) ($1.49)
- 2 Roma tomatoes ($1.39)
- 1 cucumber ($0.99)
- 1/4 bunch fresh parsley ($0.79)
Instructions
- To make the dressing, combine the tahini, water, lemon juice, minced garlic, cumin, cayenne, and salt in a blender. Blend until smooth. Set the dressing aside until ready to use (keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days).
- Rinse and drain the chickpeas in a colander. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once hot add the drained chick peas. Sprinkle the smoked paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper (if using), and some freshly cracked pepper over top. Stir the chickpeas to coat in the spices, then continue to sauté for about five minutes, or until the outside of the chickpeas are slightly browned and blistered. Season with salt to taste.
- Chop the tomatoes, cucumber, and parsley. Place about 3/4 cup cooked farro in each bowl, then top with chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, spiced chickpeas, and a large pinch of chopped parsley. Drizzle the dressing over top and serve.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Mediterranean Farro Salad – Step by Step Photos
Make the dressing first so that the flavors have a few minutes to mingle. Add 1/3 cup tahini (sesame seed paste), 1/3 cup water, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 cloves of garlic (minced), 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt to a blender. Blend until smooth. Set the dressing aside, or refrigerate for longer storage (up to five days).
Dice two roma tomatoes and one cucumber. Roughly chop about 1/4 bunch parsley (I only chopped a small amount of parsley in the photo).
Rinse and drain a 15oz. can of chickpeas.
Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a non-stick skillet and heat over a medium flame. Add the chickpeas, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp cayenne (optional), and some freshly cracked pepper (about 10-15 cranks of a mill). Stir to coat the chickpeas in oil and spices. Continue to sauté the chickpeas until they get slightly brown and blistered on the outside (about 5 minutes). Season with salt to your liking.
Begin to assemble the bowls by placing about 3/4 cup cooked farro in each bowl, then topping with some diced tomato, cucumber, spiced chickpeas, and a sprinkle of the chopped parsley.
Drizzle the tahini dressing over top.
And now it’s time to eat! There’s so much flavor packed into this one bowl, it’s incredible.
Nomnomnomnomnom…
This is so amazingly satisfying. Thanks for the recipe!!
You’re so welcome!
Amazing!!
This is so tasty, like eating a pita sandwich. Farro is such an underutilized grain–the texture is perfect. It might be because I don’t really care for cucumbers, but I used half of one instead and it seemed the balance was perfect. Thanks for posting this awesome recipe!
Way to make it your own!
Perfect meal prep. Served it with some spinach and added some feta cheese and red onion. Can’t wait to eat this all week!
You mentioned having farro pre-cooked in the fridge. Is this good cold, or best served at room temperature? Thank you!
I like this one room temp. :)
This looks absolutely delicious and looking at the ingredients, I can already taste and love it.
Question… If I add another can of chickpeas and reduce the farro to 1 cup, would it be more protein/ body building friendly?
Do you think this would throw off the textures too much?
I think that swap would be fine as far as flavor and texture goes. :) Unfortunately I don’t know the protein content of farro vs. chickpeas off hand, so I don’t know how much it would change the protein content, and whether or not it is more body building friendly is probably highly subjective.
Since I’ve made this like four times now, I figured I should leave a review! Such an easy, tasty salad. I love the chewiness of farro and it really works well with the crunchy cucumbers. I usually add some feta to mine, and mix it in with romaine lettuce for a bigger lunch. The dressing is great, and I put it on other salads all the time!
Delicious! I find this to be a great “gone-all-day, come home at 9:30 and eat something amazing” recipe. My kids and husband loved it, and the kids started out skeptical (‘leave the veggies off mine…” “no dressing on mine please”). I made each serving ahead of time so they didn’t have any option but to dig in, and even the 2 year old cleaned his plate.
Thank you for the great recipe! (I also made it with tri-color quinoa since that’s what I had on hand.)
This was fantastic! So much flavor and so healthy too. Thanks Beth!
Finally tried this recipe tonight and was blown away. *So* tasty! Satisfying and filling but not heavy. Especially loved the lemony tahini dressing (I licked the bowl!). Can’t wait for lunch tomorrow! :)
This was very tasty! I used brown rice instead of farro, and eliminated the cucumbers. I plan to make this again. It would probably taste great with feta, but it’s pretty good as is… a great base recipe!
Made this tonight with Quinoa as I was unable to find farro at Aldi. It was delicious. I mixed everything together in one bowl similar to the Roasted Cauliflower recipe you have on this site as well. It was delicious. Thank you for the amazing recipe.
I made these for lunch meal prep this week. The chickpeas and tahini sauce were excellent. I’m not sold on the farro thought. Taste was ok, but It was very gummy. (I served it cold so maybe that was the problem?) I cooked it in the InstantPot. Maybe next time I’ll try stove top and see if I get better results.
I hope you gave the farro another try. One site I found suggested cooking it like pasta: with salt in an excess of water and take out when al dente. It worked great for me. Farro’s texture is darn near perfect.
Hi…I made this but didn’t use faro. I used quinoa and brown rice and saute the chicken peas in fresh garlic and ginger.
I made this, but with tiny changes to the chickpea recipe, since Turmeric is good for inflammation and seemed to fit a little with the spice profile I added about 3/4 of a teaspoon to the spice blend. Have had it for lunch two days in a row now at work and its so good i chase the last grains of farro around with my fork. This is an amazing recipe, works well for workday lunches (but I love several others that I’ve tried from your site too!) It’s so good!