Eating the rainbow has never been easier (or prettier) with this healthy and hearty rainbow farro salad. It’s all about combining flavors and textures for the ultimate salad experience.
We topped a bed of spicy greens (arugula, watercress, and radicchio) with farro (an ancient wheat grain that is both healthy and filling) and a spectrum of rainbow vegetables including tri-color carrots, radishes and cucumber. The sprinkle of feta on top is optional, and while I think it is the perfect topping, without it this recipe is completely vegan.
I have a love/hate relationship with radishes. On one hand, there are very few vegetables that are this naturally stunning; I always want to buy radishes when I see them because they’re just so gosh darn pretty. On the other hand, I don’t love eating them. Chalk it up to a bad experience I had once with a daikon, but I’ve been a tentative radish eater ever since. But in this salad, the radish isn’t overpowering; rather, it adds a tough of pepperiness that goes perfectly with the spicy greens and the sweet dressing.
Do you hate chopping vegetables as much as I do? Especially when making a veggie-packed salad like this one, you could easily spend 30 minutes chopping vegetables alone, unless, of course, you happen to be a knife wizard (which I am most definitely not). But with the KitchenAid® Food Processor attachment, you’ll be done prepping all those veggies in mere minutes. The attachment is more compact than a full-size food processor (since it runs off the motor already in your stand mixer), and has blades to slice, dice, and shred vegetables and other foodstuffs with ease.
We used the julienne blade for long, delicate strips of rainbow carrot, and the slicing blade to slice radishes and cucumber as well as shred purple radicchio (Pro tip: the next time you have to make a big batch of coleslaw, this technique will save you loads of time!)
Rainbow Farro Salad with Blood Orange Vinaigrette
Hearty farro and a vibrant mix of rainbow carrots, radish, radicchio and cucumber are dressed in a bright blood orange vinaigrette. Perfect as a healthy lunch or for dinner as a side salad or main.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup farro, cooked according to package instructions
- 3 thick rainbow carrots, cut into 2-inch chunks
- 1/2 small head radicchio, cut into wedges
- 3 small Persian cucumbers
- 3 medium radishes, trimmed
- 3 ounces spicy greens such as arugula and watercress, rinsed and drained
- crumbled feta cheese, for topping
For Blood Orange Vinaigrette:
- 1/4 cup blood orange juice (fresh squeezed, if possible)
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 medium shallot, finely chopped (1 tablespoon chopped)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Cook farro in a pot of boiling salted water according to package instructions (cooking time will vary depending on the particular variety of farro, ours took about 20 minutes). Drain well and set aside to cool.
- With the julienne blade in place, stack carrots in the feed tube horizontally (feeding them this way vs standing up vertically will result in longer, finer julienne pieces). Turn mixer to medium speed and press down to slice.
- Swap out the slicing blade and set the thickness to somewhere in the middle. Press wedges of radicchio down through the feed tube to coarsely shred.
- Decrease slicing thickness to the smallest possible. Run cucumbers and radishes through the processor to slice into thin slices.
- To prepare dressing, whisk together orange juice, zest, shallot, maple syrup, mustard, and lemon juice. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking until dressing is smooth and emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Toss farro with approximately 2-3 tablespoons of dressing until evenly coated. Toss greens with another 2-3 tablespoons of dressing.
- To assemble, arrange a bed of dressed greens on serving dish or individual salad plates or bowls. Top with farro, followed by vegetables. Drizzle with remaining dressing as desired. Top with a sprinkle of feta cheese and serve at room temperature.
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