Italian Farro Salad Recipe is made with feta cheese, kalamata olives, garbanzo beans, veggies, and a simple and tangy vinaigrette dressing. Great for meal prep or a delicious side dish that’s ready fast!
If you are looking for a delicious dish for meal prep or a gathering, this is it! This Farro Salad recipe is full of flavor and great for any occasion.
Love easy make ahead salads? Don’t miss this delicious Lemon Orzo Salad recipe, Spinach Pasta Salad, Italian Tuna Pasta Salad, or this super simple 5-ingredient Pesto Pasta Salad recipe. Zucchini lovers should try my Zucchini Ricotta Fritters recipe. And, if you love hearty healthy meals, don’t miss my Sausage Kale Bean Soup or Pasta e Ceci recipes!
You’ll Love Italian Farro Salad!
It’s always great to have cold salads on hand for get togethers or easy meal prep. This Italian Farro Salad recipe is full of fresh flavors and can be made up to five days ahead.
If you’ve never cooked with farro before, you are missing out. This delicious grain has a crunchy and nutty texture, and is full of fiber.
Similar to rice or pasta, farro is a blank slate for adding the flavors you love. This recipe takes on delicious Italian and mediterranean tastes with kalamata olives, feta, and garbanzo beans.
You can add whatever other veggies and proteins you’d like here too. This would be delicious with diced cucumbers, bell peppers, or red onions. Or top with grilled chicken to make this a meal.
The dressing for this salad is a simple and tangy blend of olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and oregano. It compliments the salad perfectly and is great for soaking into the farro.
Ingredients
The ingredients for Italian Farro Salad include: cooked farro, garbanzo beans, feta, kalamata olives, celery, cherry tomatoes, parsley, and dressing.
- Farro: farro is a nutty and chewy grain that cooks up similar to pasta. You can find it in the grain section of the grocery store. If you can’t find farro, you can use bulgur, quinoa, or brown rice.
- Kalamata olives: these give the salad a salty bite. Feel free to use whatever olives you have on hand.
- Feta cheese: the feta gives a salty smooth flavor and can be omitted if you wanted to keep it vegan.
- Veggies: this recipe calls for celery, cherry tomatoes, and parsley, but you could add red onion, cucumbers, or bell peppers.
- Dressing: the dressing here is a delicious and simple combination of olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, oregano and kosher salt.
How to Make Italian Farro Salad
This farro salad recipe comes together fast and is great to make ahead. You can get a head start on this by prepping the farro ahead of time and chilling.
Step 1: prepare the dressing. In a bowl, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced fresh garlic, dried oregano, and kosher salt.
Step 2: cook the farro according to package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water. While the farro is cooking, dice the veggies and olives. Then, pour the drained farro into a large bowl and add in the tomatoes, garbanzo beans, celery, parsley, and olives.
Step 3: whisk the dressing to combine. Then, pour the dressing over the salad.
Step 4: use a spoon to toss the salad altogether and combine the ingredients.
Recipe Tip and FAQs
- Farro works as a great base for flavors and veggies. Feel free to add whatever veggies or toppings you like to this salad.
- Be sure the farro is cooled before tossing with the other ingredients. Speed up cooling by rinsing with cold water and draining well.
- This Italian Farro Salad Recipe is great for meal prep. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.
Farro should be cooked similar to pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add in the farro. Cook just until the grain is al dente; about 30 minutes. Then drain in a colander. You can also buy par-cooked farro that cooks in less time.
Farro is an extremely nutritious ancient grain that is very high in fiber and a good source of iron.
Farro is a delicious base and can be used in place of grains (like rice and quinoa) in most recipes. Farro takes on the flavors you give and is perfect as a cold summer salad. It also makes a creamy risotto.
More Ancient Grain Recipes
I love to cook with these ancient grains whenever I can. They are super flavor and so nutritious! Here are some of my favorites:
- Italian Sausage and Lentils
- Easy Vegetable Quinoa Salad
- Farro Tabbouleh Salad
- Parsley Quinoa Chickpea Salad
- Quinoa Beet Salad
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating in the recipe card below and/or review in the comments section further down the page.
Italian Farro Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked farro
- 1 ½ cups cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup celery, diced (about 3 stalks)
- 15 ounces garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
- ½ cup kalamata olives, diced
- ½ cup feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Vinaigrette
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Rinse and drain farro, then cook according to package instructions. Drain and pour into a large mixing bowl to cool slightly.
- While the farro cooks, prepare the vinaigrette. In a bowl whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano, and salt.
- To the cooled farro add the cherry tomatoes, celery, garbanzo beans, kalamata olives, feta, and parsley. Pour on the dressing and toss until well combined. Serve cold or a room temperature.
Notes
- Farro is an ancient grain that can be found in most grocery stores. If you can’t find farro, you can always substitute quinoa, barley, or brown rice.
- If you are making this ahead, only add half the dressing and then add the remaining dressing before serving. Also, don’t add the feta until ready to serve.
- Feel free to add whatever veggie or mix ins you like. This would be delicious with diced cucumber, red onion, sun dried tomatoes, roasted red bell peppers, or goat cheese.
Oh my goodness, I didn’t know there was an actual recipe for Farro! I have been using it for years. I always cook it in chicken broth. I use many of the vegetables and additives in your recipe, but I also use cooked chunks of chicken and always green peas! I use a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. My whole family loves it.
Love this! Thanks for sharing 🙂
All of my favorites in one dish! Will be making this again!
I love healthy whole grain past salad recipes like this. Making this for dinner this week to serve with some grilled chicken…can’t wait!
This salad was great with our dinner! The vinaigrette was so flavorful and we loved the feta and olives in this!
Made this for a little picnic with friends. Everyone loved it!
Yeah! It’s the perfect picnic food.
Everyone at my house enjoyed this salad! I will definitely make it again!
So happy you loved it!