This Mediterranean Farro Salad with a Sweet Zesty Lemonade Dressing is as scrumptious as it sounds and as easy as can be! It’s the kind of salad you can have as a full meal or you can pair it with grilled meat or fish!
Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by the Coca-Cola Company—Makers of quality food products for every household! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Summer is my perfect excuse to eat more salads, they’re refreshing, filling and feel light as air. Today I’m making a Mediterranean Farro Salad with a Sweet Zesty Lemonade Dressing recipe. As scrumptious as it sounds, it’s also as easy as can be!
Why this recipe works:
This Mediterranean Farro Salad is the kind of salad you can have as a full meal or you can pair it with anything you’re throwing on the grill. Think grilled chicken, fish or even grilled feta cheese.
It’s such a healthy, yet satisfyingly filling salad recipe! The farro in this Mediterranean salad adds a nice, chewy texture and a wonderful nutty taste. This ancient grain is also exceptionally high fibre and protein making this farro salad a healthy, nutritious meal!
I simply can’t get enough of light and fresh summer food! Delicious and filling salads, BBQ’s and plenty of icy cold lemonades and iced tea! Before I go into details about this Mediterranean Farro Salad and get all excited about it, I would like to talk a bit about my favorite summer drinks—Simply Lemonade® and Gold Peak® Iced Teas!
I’ve shared this Summer Pasta Platter with Sweet Tea Dressing recipe last year and it’s a HIT every single time I make it! It’s summer pasta salad perfection dressed up with a sweet basil iced tea sauce that’s to die for! And it’s certainly that good because I am using my favorite Gold Peak Iced Tea!
This year I moved to a new suburb and luckily I found my local Walmart to be just 5 minutes away. It quickly became my go-to store for everything you can imagine—groceries, toys, home, summer fun, school supplies, flowers..everything!
Last weekend, my cousin was visiting from NY and I chose this Mediterranean Farro Salad recipe because we both have a thing for farro! My grandma used to make it all the time, and she even used to make a sweet version of it. I know it seems unheard of but it’s actually quite good!
If you’re not familiar with farro—I encourage you to give this ancient nutty Mediterranean grain a try 🙂 Farro is chewy, has a slightly nutty wheaty taste with an exceptionally high fibre and protein content!
So for my cousin, I went to Walmart and packed all those goodies! The freshest produce for my salad, farro grain, and my favorite drinks from the fridge aisle—Simply Lemonade and Simply Lemonade with Raspberries (I’ve also loved the mango version!).
I also purchased a couple of bottles of delicious Gold Peak iced tea which you’ll find at the drinks aisle. The flavors are endless, I keep trying one after the other and still can’t decide which would be my favorite flavor!
How to make this Mediterranean Farro Salad with Lemonade Dressing:
First, we prepare the farro:
There are so many ways to cook farro. It’s easiest to soak the grains overnight and cooked them the next day just like you would do with lentils.
Similarly, it could be cooked like rice ( 1 part farro to 3 parts liquid) and finally it could be cooked like pasta—which is my favorite way.
Because farro has a nice chewy texture, I prefer cooking it in boiling salted water until it reaches my favorite al dente texture. I then simply drain it.
The cooking water can be flavored with bay leaves, garlic, onion, spice and can even be replaced with stock. For today’s farro salad, I preferred simple salted water because I wanted other flavors to shine.
Drain the cooked farro and place it in your salad bowl. Pour1/4 cup of the dressing over the hot cooked farro before adding the remaining salad ingredients—this adds plenty of flavor to the farro.
What to add on to your Mediterranean Farro Salad is completely and totally up to your imagination. I’ve loaded mine with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, Sicilian olives, artichokes, chickpeas, arugula and a bunch of chopped mint leaves, basil and parsley.
Add the salad ingredients to the salad bowl and toss the farro salad well, then pour more of the lemonade dressing over the salad and toss again.
Add more lemonade dressing to your Mediterranean Farro Salad right before serving, if necessary.
How to make the Lemonade Dressing:
When it comes to the dressing, I went for a Lemonade Dressing! It’s the ultimate Lemon dressing—not too tangy, not too sweet, super lemony and packed with freshness!
So what’s the secret ingredient for my Lemonade Dressing? Why, it’s my all-time favorite: Simply Lemonade 🙂 Simply Lemonade got the perfect balance of sweet and tang. I paired that with a touch of garlic, a hint of mustard (for texture), some fresh basil and olive oil. Simple easy and quick.
It is this simple, yet flavorsome Lemonade Dressing what makes the Mediterranean Farro Salad POP with flavor!
To make the lemonade dressing, simply mix all ingredients in a glass container. Seal the container and shake it vigorously until well blended.
Make yourself a nice big bowl of this Mediterranean Farro Salad with Lemonade Dressing and enjoy with your loved ones!
Don’t miss out on the amazing savings for these drinks and more at your local Walmart! And if you’re looking for more ways to indulge this summer, here’s an amazing source of recipes! My cousin and I devoured this farro salad and I can’t wait for you to make it too! Don’t forget to tag me when you do and enjoy what’s left of this gorgeous season!
Tips for success:
- It’s a great idea to make plenty of this Lemonade Dressing and use it on all your salads this summer! Even pasta salads.
- If you’re a mayo kind of person, add 2 tablespoons of mayo to the dressing to turn it into a creamy sweet and tangy lemon dressing.
- The cooking water for the farro can be flavored with bay leaves, garlic, onion, allspice or can even be replaced with stock.
- For even more protein, add chopped grilled chicken, steak, shrimp or smoked salmon to this farro salad!
Mediterranean Farro Salad with Sweet Zesty Lemonade Dressing
This Mediterranean Farro Salad with a Sweet Zesty Lemonade Dressing is as scrumptious as it sounds and as easy as can be! It’s the kind of salad you can have as a full meal or you can pair it with grilled meat or fish!
Ingredients
Farro Salad:
- 1 cup uncooked farro grain
- 4 cups boiling salted water
Salad Ingredients:
- 1 cup arugula
- 2/3 cup cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- 1 cup sliced cucumber
- 2/3 cups canned chickpeas
- 1/2 cup sliced Sicilian olives
- 1/3 cup minced onions/scallions
- 1 can artichokes quartered
- 2/3 cups minced fresh herbs a mixture of mint, parsley and basil
Sweet Lemonade Dressing:
- 1 small clove of garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon honey mustard
- 1 cup Simply Lemonade
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
- squeeze of half a lemon
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
Instructions
- To cook the farro: Bring the salted water to a boil and just as if you would cook pasta, drop in the farro grain and cook until it’s chewy and al dente—this may take up to 50 minutes. Farro has a nice chewy bite so it won’t mush up easily on you.
- Drain the cooked farro and place it in your salad bowl.
- Make the Lemonade Dressing: Add all ingredients in a glass container. Seal the container and shake it vigorously until well blended.
- Pour1/4 cup of the dressing over the hot cooked farro before adding the remaining salad ingredients—this adds plenty of flavor to the farro.
- Add the salad ingredients to the salad bowl and toss the salad well, then pour more of the dressing over the salad and toss again.
- Serve the salad right away and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- It’s a great idea to make plenty of this Lemonade Dressing and use it on all your salads this summer! Even pasta salads.
- If you’re a mayo kind of person, add 2 tablespoons of mayo to the dressing to turn it into a creamy sweet and tangy lemon dressing.
- The cooking water for the farro can be flavored with bay leaves, garlic, onion, allspice or can even be replaced with stock.
- For even more protein, add chopped grilled chicken, steak, shrimp or smoked salmon to this farro salad!
Hey Dee 🙂 YES! that’s the perfect way to start with farro!! Hope you make it soon!!