Farro Caprese Salad

This farro caprese salad is fresh and summery: perfect for upcoming warmer weather.

Farro is, hands down, my new favorite grain.  It’s an ancient grain that’s roughly nutritionally equivalent to quinoa. However, I find its chewy texture to be much more interesting.  It’s kind of nutty, and is great in salads.  I can’t lie, I even ate it as a hot breakfast cereal one morning with some brown sugar and cinnamon.  Pretty tasty.Though you could definitely make this salad any time of the year, Caprese anything screams “summer” to me.  This salad is doubly summery, to me, with the addition of baby arugula.

I’ve made this to take to work all week for my lunch, but this would also be perfect for cookouts and BBQs, or as a side dish for dinner.

This salad is inspired by one that I saw on Pastiche.

You’ll need:

• 14 oz. bag Italian pearled farro
• 4 cups water
• 2 tsp olive oil
• salt, to taste
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 8 oz. fresh mozzarella, cubed
• fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
• 2 handfuls fresh baby arugula
• 1.5 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Place the farro and water in a medium-sized sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain the remaining water from the pot, add the olive oil and salt, and toss to combine.  Allow the farro to cool to room temperature.

Add the cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and arugula to the cooled farro.  Toss everything together.

Whisk together the balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  Pour over the farro and toss to coat everything evenly.

This can be eaten cold, at room temperature, or warm (think melty strings of mozzarella).