Farro Salad

Farro is a delicious and slightly crunchy variety of wheat. I have read it was a staple in Roman times. We don't hear a lot about it because there are much higher yielding varieties of wheat, which are more profitable to produce. Farro is not too difficult to find, and it is well worth the search.

I added 3 cups of farro to eight cups of water in a pot. After it starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium , cover and let it cook for 20 minutes. Add a little salt, reduce the heat further and simmer for an additional 10 minutes. The grains will be al dente. Drain, place in a mixing bowl and let cool to room temperature.

At this point, you can add whatever veggies you'd like. I reconstituted some dried Roma tomatoes and chopped them roughly. Cut up some yellow onion and some radishes from the garden. Finally, I cooked some frozen green beans, put them under cold water and drained them well.

All of the vegetables are mixed into the farro. I have made this before with varities of sweet peppers, olives, asparagus, pea pods, scallions... You get the idea.

We are entertaining a friend who is vegan this evening, but you could add meat as well. I suppose.

Use your imagination. Be whimsical.

The dressing I made is based loosely on that for Greek horiatiki salad. I whisked together some red wine vinegar, olive oil, a spoonful of Dijon mustard, some black pepper and a generous, a very generous spoonful of dried oregano.

Mix the dressing into the salad thoroughly. This can be refrigerated, but it is best, in my opinion, at room temperature.

I plan to serve it with some leaves of a few varieties of lettuce. Not ice burg mind you, but you could.

Bon appétit!