Farro and White Bean Salad with Fennel

I’ve been hoping to make some more hearty salads lately. They’re just right for simple suppers in the heat of summer and I love to take them to work for lunch. I finally got around to cooking up a small, very nice bag of farro I’ve had in the cupboard for a while, and I finally got around to cooking up the white beans stored next to that. What pushed me past that procrastination, however, was the purchase of a lovely little fennel bulb at the local farmer’s market. The bulb was smallish, but it was so fresh that the heavier parts of the stalks were also quite nice. It also had a beautiful head of lush green hair that hung out of my market bag as I shopped. Pity I didn’t get a photo.

Anyway, this is similar to other bean and grain salads I’ve made, and just as good, too. The flavor is very fennel forward, but it’s underlined by the nuttiness of the farro (gentle) and walnuts (a little nuttier). The vinaigrette dressing it pretty standard and you could substitute the walnut oil with another nut oil or olive oil, but I quite liked it here (especially since I also included the walnuts). You could also substitute the cider vinegar with another vinegar or with citrus juice. Again, I liked the cider vinegar.

 

This salad is also an interesting play of textures. The farro is chewy and a little starchy. The beans are creamy and mild. The fennel is crunchy, but not overly so. The interspersed walnuts also have a pleasant crunch. Very nice, I must say. And if you cannot find (or don’t care for) fennel, don’t let that keep you from experimenting with some version of this hearty, nutritious salad.

Farro and White Bean Salad with Fennel and Walnuts

½ cup chopped walnuts

2 cups cooked farro

1 ½ cups (about 1 16-ounce can) cooked white beans, drained and rinsed

1 medium-size fennel bulb and firm stalks, sliced

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

¼ teaspoon salt

a few grinds of black pepper

¼ cup walnut oil

1. Toast the walnuts in a dry saute pan over medium heat until just beginning to brown. Set aside to cool.

2. Combine the farro, beans, and fennel in a medium size bowl. Toss to combine.

3. In a small bowl, combine the cider vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk together to combine well. Whisk in the walnut oil until the mixture is smooth. Pour over the farro mixture and toss to coat. Stir in the toasted walnuts.

Makes 6-8 servings. Leftovers last for several days in the refrigerator.

Other recipes like this one: Three Grain Salad with White Beans and Artichokes, Wheat Berry Salad with Fresh Peas and Kale Dressing, Wheat Berry Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Lemon Vinaigrette, Farro and Apple Salad with Craisins

Farro and Apple Salad

I introduced myself to farro recently. A smallish bag of pearled farro grains, in fact. I’m happy to say we’ve hit it off nicely and this is likely to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I suppose I’d have to describe cooked pearled farro grains as sort of a cross between wheat berries and barley in flavor and texture. The pearled farro took much less time to cook than wheat berries do, more like the time it takes to cook pearled barley. For busy cooks, that’s rather an advantage. I liked the texture, which is a bit chewier than barley, but not quite as chewy as wheat berries. It’s nicely nutty in flavor, although still quite mild like most cooked whole grains. That just means it can hold a place well in a flavorful dish like this salad I’ve been making with apples, craisins and cider vinaigrette.

This salad is extremely easy to toss together once the farro is cooked and cooled, and is, of course, open to endless variations. I liked the sweet-tart apple and craisin combination. The addition of something crunchy like nuts or seeds is also a nice compliment to the chewy grains and crisp apple. I use hulled pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas) because that’s what I was trying to use up from my pantry. Sunflower seeds or walnuts would probably also be nice.

 

I find that, except for really quite small variations in flavor and texture, cooked whole grains are pretty much interchangeable in many recipes. If you happen to have barley or wheat berries or rye berries on hand instead of farro, for instance, they’d be good in this salad, too. Or you could use a combination of grains (like I did in this salad).

I cooked up that whole bag of farro, divided up the cooked grains into portions appropriate for this salad (or others like it), and froze them for later use. You, of course, can do this with other grains, too, (to say nothing of beans). Thanks to this stream-lined make-ahead process, I’m on my second batch of this salad. All too often, it takes me a year or more to go back to a recipe. Farro and I are such good friends, however, that I think we’ll visit each other, whether in the form of this salad or some other dish, much more often. 

 

Farro and Apple Salad with Craisins

You could use another oil that you like in place of the sunflower oil, such as canola, olive or pumpkinseed. You could also use sunflower seeds or nuts in place of the pumpkin seeds.
 
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
½ teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper (a few grinds from a pepper mill)
¼ cup sunflower oil
¼ cup finely chopped red onion
3 cups cooked and cooled farro
1 medium apple, cored and finely chopped (I’ve been using Granny Smith)
¼ cup craisins
¼ cup pumpkin seeds

1. In a large bowl, combine the vinegar, salt, pepper, sunflower oil, and onion. Whisk together until well combined.

2. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir until well coated with the dressing.

 

Makes about 6 servings. Refrigerate leftovers for a few days.

 

Other recipes like this one: Wheat Berry Salad with Fresh Peas and Kale Dressing, Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Maple Walnut Vinaigrette, Wheat Berry Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Lemon Vinaigrette, Three Grain Salad with White Beans and Artichokes

One year ago: Spinach-Chive Pesto