Farro and Root Vegetable Salad

This Winter I have been eating more grains and I have become a real fan of this salad, well I call it a salad you could call it a side dish or really you could call it dinner.

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Peel and chop into bite size pieces 3-4 cups of Root Vegetable. I used heirloom carrots (red, golden, orange) Parsnip (a nice big one, I love Parsnip) and a sweet potato you can use anything else that strikes your fancy that is at the Market in February.

Toos the vegetables with 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil and roast until nicely brown and soft.


While they are cooking boil 3/4 cup of Faro in 6 cups of salted water for about 20 minutes or until the grain is soft, but still has a little chew don't over cook mushy Faro is not a pretty thing.

Drain the Faro and put back into the pot you cooked it in.  

Chop Two Shallots finely and toss them with the Faro, add salt and fresh ground black pepper.  

Make a very simple Red Wine vinaigrette 1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar and 1/2 cup Olive Oil salt
and pepper maybe a dash of grain mustard.  If you want to do this wine lemon juice or another kind of vinegar go for it.

Toss into the Farro 3/4 cup of roughly chopped Parsley and 2 Tablespoon of fresh herbs - I used Rosemary but Sage, Winter Savory or Thyme all would be great.

When the root vegetables are cooked toss them into the Farro mixture.  I left it in the pot and left it sit on the stove until I wanted to serve it.   If you think you want to wait and reheat this add the fresh herb/parsley at the end before serving.  When you are ready to serve add the vinaigrette a little at a time tasting as you go.  Feel free to add more vinegar or lemon juice if you want the salad to have more punch.    Ditto for the Rosemary if you want to have a more herbaceous salad.  

This is a very diverse and tasty salad. If you don't want to use a vinaigrette you could try a pesto (sage?) and omitting the rosemary or maybe Chermoula for a Moroccan spicier dish or even 

Try it and make it your own!