This warm farro salad is a great lunch or dinner. Cooked farro is first tossed with Boursin soft cheese until the cheese melts and then mixed with asparagus and fava beans. The salad is finished with thinly sliced radishes, scallions, fresh herbs, and a vinaigrette.
The post includes suggestions for substitutions for fava beans if you can't find any canned, frozen, or fresh ones. And if you've never worked with fava beans, I've included a video on how to peel them.
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Serving salads as a main dish is a great way to get a lot of fresh vegetables into your diet. Great examples include this Potato and Lentil Salad and my Warm Chickpea Salad with Feta and Fire-Roasted Tomatoes.
These salads can be flexible for the ingredients you have on hand and for adding the protein you prefer.
🧅 Main Ingredients + Notes
The secret to faster and easier meals often lies in the ingredients. For example, store-bought items and ingredients you make ahead and store in the refrigerator (or freezer) can turn a 60-minute recipe into a 30-minute meal or less.
This list only covers ingredients that require some notes. For all of the ingredients, measurements, and directions, go to the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post.
- Farro - Pearl barley also works great in this salad. I cook farro the exact same way I do barley.
- Fava beans - These beans are available fresh in long pods through the late spring and early summer. If you can't find them, look for frozen or canned fava beans. The canned ones are often labeled as broad beans.
- Asparagus - Use either skinny or fat asparagus.
- Spring onions - if these aren't available, substitute scallions.
- Boursin - Boursin is a soft cheese found in the specialty cheese section of most grocery stores. I use the Garlic and Herb Boursin, but feel free to use your own favorite.
🌱 Preparing Fava Beans
Fava beans, also known as broad beans, are sold in long, large pods. Once you open the pods, remove the beans from their fuzzy beds and pop them into simmering water to blanch them.
Transfer them to an ice bath to cool them down. When they're cool enough to handle, you need to peel away their outer skins. Check out the video in the Recipe Card for tips on how to do this.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products and foods I use in my kitchen. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To view my entire storefront of recommended kitchen tools and equipment, check out my shop on Amazon.
🔪 Recommended Equipment
Having the right equipment for recipes makes prepping much easier. If you want more fuss-free prepping and cooking, check out my updated list of favorite kitchen tools and equipment.
- Air fryer or toaster oven - for roasting the asparagus.
- Large pot - for cooking the farro
- Large pot - for blanching the fava beans
- Small bowl and a whisk - to make the dressing
🎯 Why This Recipe Works
- The farro makes this a filling salad.
- Add a fair amount of herbs adds a lot of flavor to the salad.
- Radishes add a little crunch and a peppery flavor.
- A sherry vinaigrette is a perfect way to balance the grain's earthiness and complement the asparagus.
⏰ Tips to Simplify and Save Time
- Make the farro ahead of time and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Rewarm the grain on the stove top with a little water before adding the Boursin.
- Shell, blanch, and peel the fava beans up to 3 - 4 days ahead, and store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
💡Ideas for Possible Variations
I like to use what's in season when making this grain salad. Here are some combinations that work well:
- Fire-roasted tomatoes or balsamic roasted tomatoes with sautéed eggplant.
- Lightly sautéed zucchini, corn, and shallots
- Air fryer mushrooms in place of fava beans in the winter.
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Warm Farro Salad with Asparagus and Fava Beans
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- โ cup uncooked farro or pearl barley
- 3 tablespoons Herb and Garlic Boursin or more to taste
- 30 pods fava beans
- 1 bunch asparagus ends trimmed
- 2 teaspoons avocado oil
- 3 small spring onions or 3 scallions
- 3 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or ยฝ teaspoon sea salt
- 6 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 6 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
- 6 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Sherry Vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar
- ยผ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ยฝ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ยผ teaspoon kosher salt
- ยผ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Cook the farro according to these instructions for cooking barley, or per the package instructions.When it's done, drain and return it to the pot. Add the Boursin and toss in the warm farro to melt the cheese. Keep the grain in the pot to keep it warm.
- While the farro cooks, shell the fava beans. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the fava beans for a quick blanch. After 3 minutes, strain, and transfer to a bowl of ice water. See the post for tips on how to shell fava beans.
- Once they're cooled enough to handle, the outer skin of the fava beans will be slightly swollen. Pinch the area around their small caps to pop out the inner tender fava bean. See the video on how to do this with little effort.
- Preheat the air fryer to 400˚F. Trim and asparagus, toss in a little avocado oil, and lightly season with salt and pepper. Air fry for 5 - 7 minutes until lightly roasted. Slice into 1-inch pieces.Note: If using a toaster oven or conventional oven, set it for the same temperature. It will take roughly twice as long to roast.
- Add the fava beans, asparagus, onion, radishes, salt, and half of the chopped herbs to the farro and Boursin, and lightly toss. Season to taste, if needed.
- Whisk together the ingredients for the sherry vinaigrette.
- Transfer the warm farro salad to a serving plate and top with the remaining herbs. Drizzle with the sherry vinaigrette, to taste.
- Serve warm or at room temperature.
gluttonforlife
Sounds delicious! Makes me homesick for the early springs of my childhood in Santa Cruz. My husband can't eat gluten, so I guess a version of this with quinoa or brown rice would work, right?
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Laura. Quinoa would work wonderfully with this - I would just add a little more lemon and eliminate the balsamic vinegar and sherry. Brown rice would just be a clean substitution. Hope you like it!
Renee
Love farro and everything in this salad. Definitely a recipe keeper!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Renee! This salad makes me feel so good afterwards. Hope you have a chance to try it:-)
Suzi
This looks fantastic, I love those fresh veggies. I miss the Bay area, I used to live in San Francisco, went back for a visit a couple of years ago and still love it there.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Suzi!! I love it here, especially this time of year ๐
Rosemary
Very clever how you've straddled the climates. And roasted cherry tomatoes are perfect in any recipe!
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Rosemary. I agree - I add roasted cherry tomatoes to so many things. It adds such a nice umami flavor to vegetarian dishes.
lapadia
"Climate whiplash", ha, love that. I haven't been traveling but the weather has been switching up throughout the week. Spring is trying its best to dominate, we are starting to get fresh asparagus and I am always looking for new ideas to use it! Thanks for the idea ๐
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I've tried to grow asparagus a couple times now without success. I love it so much, I thought this would be a great way to have it available all spring at my fingertips -- literally. But no go. But I'm always looking for ways to use it too:-)
L.Michelle
what is farro?
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I should have added a little explanation as to what it is - thanks for the idea to do that. It's a wheat whole grain. I use it interchangeable with barley. The flavor, appearance, and texture are very similar.
Rita Held
Tasty! Now I can use up the last of the farro in my cupboard (that which I bought last fall).
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Rita. I keep a container of cooked farro and one of cooked quinoa in my refrigerator all the time now so I can just throw some into a salad or mix it into casseroles or other veggies. That's actually how I came up with this, and now it's in regular rotation since Myles likes it too.
Norma Chang
Adding wine to the blanching water is new to me, must give that a try. A very colorful and satisfying salad.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Norma. I've made it with and without it, and including the wine really adds something to the entire dish from the asparagus to the farro. If I'm running out of water towards the end of cooking the farro, instead of adding water, I'll add a little more of the wine.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much Suzanne. Hope you had a great time with your grandkids! This is a great way to use farro, and one of my favorite ways these days. Hope you have a chance to try it ๐
Baker Street
This would be a great way to use up my left over farro! Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe. The salad looks fantastic.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks so much!! I hope you have a chance to try it - it's definitely one of my favorite recipes for farro. Even my husband likes it ๐
Yve
Great recipe - haven't done a lot of cooking with farro but definitely think it qualifies in the sexy vegetarian books! Love the use of goats cheese ๐
The Wimpy Vegetarian
I confess I hadn't tried farro until I was in culinary school a few years ago. I found that I really liked it and have been playing with it and barley ever since. It's the new black - everyone's wanting to work with it now ๐ Thanks so much for stopping by and for your comment, Yve!
Lynda - TasteFood
What a beautiful dish! I love the balance of nutty farro with all of these fresh spring ingredients.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Thanks Lynda! I love your farro dish too. It's perfect!
Bevi
I just roasted some cherry tomatoes - and will get some farro to make this dish. this is year one for our asparagus patch - it doesn't look too great, but I guess I have to wait patiently for a few more years.
The Wimpy Vegetarian
Well, your asparagus patch is doing better than mine did. My asparagus plant did wonderful as long as it was in a pot in my very sunny, warm kitchen window. But as soon as it was planted in the ground, it went downhill. I don't think it's sunny enough here in the foggy summers we get. Luckily we have farms nearby in sunnier micro-climates. I hope you like this dish - we just love it!
Hannah
This is a fabulous salad! I wish I could spoon a big scoop right out of your beautiful photo - such a tempting dish. Farro is a terrific grain to use - thanks for the inspiration!