Heart Healthy Farro Salad

I love the versatility of this Heart Healthy Farro Salad. You can prep all of your ingredients ahead of time, and toss the salad right before serving – making this perfect for a tasty, weeknight meal or impressive side for guests. Best of all, the leftovers can do a tasty double duty for lunch.

Not only is farro delicious and easy to prepare, it is a nutrient-dense grain that is packed with health-promoting benefits. Farro is high in fiber, high in protein, loaded with B vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals iron, magnesium and zinc.

The addition of fresh herbs, lots of vegetables, pomegranate seeds and nuts, adds texture, flavor and additional nutritional benefits. For instance, pomegranate seeds are well known for their health benefits. They can help to lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, reduce oxidative stress, reduce inflammation, and lower high blood sugars. Pomegranate seeds are also loaded with fiber, antioxidants, vitamin K , vitamin C and potassium. Pomegranates have even been shown to have anti-carcinogenic effects. That’s right, pomegranate seeds can aid in the prevention of certain forms of cancer! An added bonus – pomegranate seeds are considered to be one of the top aphrodisiac foods on the planet.

This salad tastes as good as it looks, and deliciously helps you get more plant-based foods into your diet. It is important to remember that when cooking my recipes you do not have to be exact. If you have pistachios instead of pine nuts, use them. No cucumber? No problem; you can use celery or carrots. Don’t feel you have to limit yourself to mint – parsley, dill and celery leaves all work well in this recipe. The same goes for the dressing. Greek yogurt is what I use, but you can substitute kefir; or skip the dairy all together, and make a classic vinaigrette that you season with za’atar. Enjoy this recipe and make it your own!

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Heart Healthy Farro Salad Recipe

I love the versatility of this Heart Healthy Farro Salad.

Course Entree, Salad, Side Dish, Vegetables

Keyword beet, cucumber, farro, feta, garlic, greek yogurt, lemon, mint, pine nut, pomegranate, scallions, za'atar

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 cup whole-milk plain Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tsp. za'atar
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 cup dry organic farro rinsed and cooked according to directions
• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves coarsely chopped. Extra for garnish.
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 4 scallions thinly sliced
• 1/2 Hot house cucumber rinsed sliced in half length-wise, then cut into slices
• 1/2 a beet sliced with a julienne slicer
• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

Instructions

1. Combine first 5 ingredients together in a bowl and whisk the dressing together.
2. Place the rest of the ingredients, except the pine nuts, together in a large bowl and toss with dressing. Toss in pine nuts before serving and garnish with extra mint leaves

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Kristen Coffield

I am a passionate advocate for food as medicine, life navigator and culinary coach. This is my space for sharing what excites, inspires and motivates me to live my best life. It began as a recipe blog for nourishing, simple, weekday meals and has become something much bigger… a guide to resilient wellness. I am excited to share my knowledge of how daily habits can cumulatively help you to live like you mean it and age like you want to.