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Blog #125: Fall is here and you can finally feel it in the air. The cold mornings and the leaves turning color. Here comes the holidays filled with sweets and heavy comforting foods! It’s easy to crave warm foods in winter to keep toasty and cool foods in the summer. You can still have salads in the winter with warm foods in it! This fall farro salad will keep you full and warm all over!

What is Farro?

Farro is a Mediterranean grain that has a nutty taste and textured some what like brown rice. Although it tastes better than brown rice, in my opinion. When I want a hearty meal I skip the rice and make farro. It is used in many types of salads, whether cold or warm.

Warm Salads

Roast some vegetables and some grains, such as farro, bulgur, quinoa or even rice! You got yourself a fall/winter salad. Hearty leaves such as kale, collard greens and spinach also work well to make a cozy and filling salad. I love watermelon salads, for example, and by adding cooked kale and pumpkin seeds my salad has become a cozy salad but still refreshing. Check it out HERE.

The key is to add cooked vegetables. The easiest way to figure out what to add to your salad is by shopping for fruits and vegetables by season. Squash is perfect this time of year. For example, add some pumpkin seeds and craisins for some sweetness.

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Creating a Balanced Salad

To create a balanced salad, you want to make sure you have protein, greens and carbohydrates. Leaves alone will not fill you up. Add meat, beans or grains and cheese. Greens does not have to be the main part of your salad as you could see in this recipe.

Textures

Then there’s texture. You want some crunch. You could add some nuts or crunchy raw vegetables, such as cucumbers, bacon, or tortilla chips. It is nice balancing some crunch and softer creamier foods as well in your salad. Avocados, sour cream or sweet potatoes. Add some salty and or sweetness. Feta is salty but the carrots are sweet in this dish. Balances out perfect with a vinaigrette dressing. I used olive oil, lime and salt. You don’t need anything else in this recipe as the roasted vegetables and feta give it the extra flavor.

Main Meal

You can serve this as a main meal or make it as a side. I recommend having it as a main meal for lunch or dinner as it is super filling on its own. We all have those days where we don’t want meat or fish. Meatless Mondays! One day without meat makes a difference. You don’t feel extremely heavy. I know when I eat beef it always just sits in the pit of my stomach for a while before fully digesting.

Enough of my non stop chatter. Here is the recipe. Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!