Farro with Roasted Vegetables

The combination of chewy farro with mushrooms, tender vegetables, and gooey cheese is too hard to resist in this easy farro roasted vegetable salad.

Farro is fantastic whole grain, joining the likes of quinoa and millet, that we’ve grown to love after venturing into a whole foods plant based diet. This farro roasted vegetable salad recipe was the first recipe we tried with this grain, and we absolutely loved it. Over the years we’ve made it many times, which is notable since we usually take any opportunity to make something new!

The combination of chewy farro with mushrooms, roasted vegetables, gooey cheese is just too hard to resist. Need proof? Just ask my mom. After we served it to her, she went directly home and made this farro roasted vegetable salad for herself! Keep reading for the recipe.

What is farro?

Farro is a whole grain that’s chewy once cooked, kind of like barley. It’s considered an ancient grain, and it’s recently become quite popular. You can buy farro whole, semi-pearled, or pearled; pearled farro takes the least amount of time to cook and is likely what you’ll find at the store. You can cook farro on the stove, but it also cooks up nicely in a rice cooker. If you buy whole or semi-pearled, make the farro cook a little faster, you can soak it for an hour or overnight to speed things up. But that’s not necessary for this easy farro roasted vegetable salad recipe, which uses pearled farro.

Farro can be a bit tricky to find, so shopping for it may require some creativity. We were fortunate enough to find it in massive quantities at a local bulk goods store, as well as at a few other carriers. If you can’t locate it, you could substitute spelt, wheat berries, pearl barley, or even brown short grain rice (or look for it online!).

Is farro gluten free?

Because farro is made from wheat, it is not gluten free. Make sure to stay away from farro if you have a strict gluten free diet. However, you could still make this farro roasted vegetable salad using quinoa instead. Here’s how to make perfect quinoa.

How to make farro roasted vegetable salad

I’m a little sentimental about this farro roasted vegetable salad, not only because it was one of our early successes with meatless cuisine, but also because it taught me the function of a recipe as a “concept.” It was the first time I realized that I could cook any grain, roast any combination of vegetables, add any cheese, toss with any oil and vinegar, and come up with a winning combination. Though if you want to experience the taste sensation shown above, you’ll have to follow the instructions below.

To make this farro roasted vegetable salad you could use vegetable broth instead of water to cook the farro — you’ll likely need to adjust how much salt you add to the final dish, as vegetable broths can be very salty. Boil up the farro, which will take about 15 minutes to cook. In the meantime, chop your vegetables and get them roasting in a 400 degree oven. This recipe uses mushrooms, red onions, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and garlic: but of course you can customize to use other veggies. Just don’t leave out the mushrooms, because they add a delicious savory texture and flavor to the dish!

After the farro is cooked and the mushrooms and veggies are roasted, simply mix it all together with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle with a little parsley. The final ingredient: cubed cheese, which melts into the dish. We like using fontina cheese for it’s unique flavor, but it can sometimes be hard to find. If you can’t find it, mozzarella or gouda would work: or try smoked mozzarella or gouda to add a smoky element!

Tip: If you like this recipe, you also might enjoy our Farro with Mushrooms & Parmesan! It turns farro into a filling main dish or bowl meal.

More whole grain recipes

• Hearty Farro Salad
• Autumn Salad with Farro & Cherries
• Farro & Brussels Sprouts Soup
• Roasted Acorn Squash with Farro & Feta
• Cheddar & Roasted Broccoli Casserole
• Loaded Quinoa Tacos
• Tropical Mango Quinoa Bowl
• Artichoke & Quinoa Vegetarian Enchiladas
• Veggie Packed Quinoa Fried Rice
• Feta and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
• Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

This farro with roasted vegetables recipe is…

Vegetarian.

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