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Delicious hearty farro salad bursting with bright, beautiful color from zucchini and roasted red peppers with an easy garlic herb vinaigrette.
This simple grain salad is hearty, filling, and incredibly delicious – it is great warm or chilled, and stores well – so it is great as a side dish, hearty vegan main, or for meal prep.
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At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
Table of contents
Hearty Vegetable and Farro Salad
Farro salad is one of my favorite easy budget meals – it is delicious, quick to prepare, family-friendly – and very filling. This salad is easy to customize with whatever you have on hand, and very budget friendly – so you can fill up hungry tummies without breaking the bank!
If you’ve never had farro, it is a delicious hearty ancient grain that is packed with nutrients. Farro is a whole wheat and has a nutty taste with a chewy texture. It is usually sold pearled, and usually cooked similar to rice or pasta.
I love making salads with farro – like my Easy Burrata Farro Salad – it is great with antipasti ingredients, beans, chickpeas, and artichoke hearts!
How to Make Red Pepper Zucchini Farro Salad
To make this salad, you will need:
- Red onion – red onion brings a hot, slightly spicy, earthy vegetal flavor that is milder than white onion.
- Zucchini – zucchini has a hearty, earthy flavor and tender, springy texture with a bright green color that adds a perfect texture and visual interest to grain salads.
- Garlic – garlic adds some heat, an earthy, unctuous flavor, and addictive quality that adds dimension to grain salad.
- Garlic power – adding garlic powder to the dressing helps to create a savory, balanced burst of an umami-friendly taste that is easy to mix into a dressing.
- Maldon sea salt – using a flake-style sea salt that dissolves well into salads enhances flavor, helps dishes come together, and pulls out the flavor of the farro and vegetables.
- Roasted red pepper strips – roasted red pepper strips are sweet, slightly smoky, with a bright red flavor and delicious lightly oily texture that keep the farro from drying out and help add a tart kick to balance the savory flavor of this dish.
- Red wine vinegar – red wine vinegar adds essential acid to this salad so that it has a kick of bright, light, and sweet flavor.
- Olive oil – olive oil is a lightly flavored oil that adds fat to dressings, mixes well with seasonings, and helps grain salad to not stick together, clump up, or dry out – as well as adding a rich, deep flavor.
- Italian herbs seasoning – a blend of thyme, rosemary, marjoram, basil, and oregano is perfect to pull out an earthy, vegetal flavor that enhances the nuttiness of farro.
- Crushed red pepper flakes – crushed red pepper flakes are lightly spicy, bright red, with
- Farro – farro is a nutty, delicious ancient wheat grain that is filling, hearty, delicious, and nutritious!
To make this recipe we will use the following method:
- Prep. Boil farro until soft and wash zucchini, then chop into small 1″ pieces. Dice onion and garlic. Chop red pepper strips. Mix dressing in a small bowl.
- Cook. Sautee onion, garlic, and zucchini until lightly browned and soft. Drain farro well, toss with vegetables and dressing, and season with salt, pepper, and herbs.
- Serve.
Tips and Tricks to Perfect Farro Salad
Use fresh or sautéed veggies. We recommend lightly sautéing or roasting vegetables before adding to this dish, but if you love the flavor of fresh veggies, that’s great too. We designed this recipe to work to your on tastes! Use ingredients you have on hand. We love this salad with simple ingredients – shallots, cucumber, tomatoes, and basil – but you can add plenty of vegetables in to this simple salad based on what you love!
- Roasted asparagus
- Sautéed mushrooms
- Roasted cauliflower
- Caramelized onions
- Sautéed Zucchini
- Baby corn
- Roasted red pepper strips
Know how long to cook farro. How you cook farro depends on the type of farro you find – pearled farro is most common in America and requires a shorter cooking time of about 10-15 minutes to boil until soft.
- Since farro is incredibly different to prepare depending on the type, please go off package directions to prepare your farro.
- It will be anywhere from 10-30 minutes of boiling, and some need to soak before cooking (similar to dried beans).
- Once your farro is cooked, drain well and add to salad!
FAQS
Farro salad can be stored in an airtight container for 3-5 days in the refrigerator.
This side dish can be served hot or cold – we like the flavor after it has had time to chill and come together, but sometimes heat it up after an initial chilling time, sometimes just eat it cold!
This is not mandatory – but giving farro salad time to chill intensifies flavor and makes the salty garlic flavor much stronger.
What to Serve With Easy Farro Salad
Farro salad is a filling side dish, loaded with whole grains and vegetables – making it an easy choice for most main dishes. We love serving farro salad alongside air fryer chicken drumsticks, delicious and easy baked chicken breasts that are full of garlic butter flavor, hearty and delicious ribeye roast that is like a prime rib with the most outstanding flavor for a holiday dinner – or our weeknight classic baked pork tenderloin.
Since this dish is vegan, it is also delicious alongside whole roasted cauliflower, vegan portobello burgers, and Sheetpan Vegan Chorizo and Vegetables, too.
Red Pepper Zucchini Farro Salad Recipe
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Red Pepper Zucchini Farro Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ red onion
- 2 zucchini
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon maldon sea salt
- ½ rup roasted red pepper strips
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Italian herbs seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 lb farro
Instructions
- Add farro to a colander and rinse well with cold water.
- Boil a large pot of water and add farro, boiling until soft to the touch, about 15 minutes.
- When farro is soft with just a bit of give (al dente), drain well.
- While farro is boiling, in a pan, add a small amount of olive oil, just about a glug from the bottle, and heat on medium-high until warm.
- Add onion and heat until soft and lightly browned. Stir in garlic and zucchini. Heat until softened and browned, about 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, red wine vinegar, Italian herbs seasoning, garlic powder, celtic sea salt, and stir well to combine.
- Add farro to large bowl, and stir drained red pepper strips, sautéed onions, garlic, and zucchini into farro. Pour olive oil red wine vinegar dressing over salad and toss well.
- Serve immediately or let chill 30 minutes to let flavor intensify.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I just made this and it is delicious! I ate it warm, right after I made it. I haven’t tried it cold yet. The only thing I did different was I grilled my zucchini & onions instead of sautéing them.
I love grilling zucchini and onions, glad you liked it!