Sweet potatoes, apples & greens fill out this hearty autumn salad. With sweet, salty, crunchy & nutty elements, it's a perfect side dish or meal on its own.
I have a love/hate relationship with farro. It takes forever to make, and quinoa is quicker, but the chewy, nutty grains bring a real heartiness to this not-wimpy fall salad. The catch is that you have to pre-plan for farro – it’s easiest to make a big batch and keep it around all week. I’m not usually that organized, but I happened to have made farro the day before my Farmhouse vegetables arrived, so here we are… a farro salad with more veggies than could fit onto the subject line of this post.
Fall Salad Recipe Ingredients
This delicious salad recipe is sweet, salty, crunchy, nutty… Here’s what makes it so darn good:
- Roasted sweet potatoes, for toasty flavor and soft texture
- Peeled carrot ribbons, for a fun crisp contrast to the soft sweet potatoes
- Diced apples, for sweet fall flavor and crisp, juicy texture
- Lots of greens, for vibrant color! I mixed kale and salad greens together because that’s what I had – feel free to use one or the other if you don’t have both.
- Radishes, for a little bite and crunch
- Parsley, for fresh flavor. Thyme would be good too!
- Almonds, for crunch and extra nuttiness. Toasted pecans, walnuts, or pepitas would also be great here.
- And an apple cider Dijon vinaigrette, to tie it all together. Yum!
If you’re not vegan, crumbled feta or Parmesan shavings would be delicious here as well.
Serving Suggestions
We ate this salad for dinner, and then I ate it for lunch the next two days in a row. It’s a great one to meal prep for lunches or make ahead for holidays. You can prep all the components up to two days in advance, but for best texture, I would suggest adding the lighter salad greens at the last minute and roasting the sweet potatoes just before you’re ready to serve.
This salad would be a pretty addition to your Thanksgiving table, along with other flavorful vegetable dishes like roasted beets, green beans, and delicata squash. Of course, you can’t skip the cornbread stuffing (or regular stuffing, if that’s more your thing) and cauliflower mashed potatoes.
If you’re looking for vegetarian main dish ideas, try this stuffed acorn squash or a classic lasagna. And don’t forget the apple pie for dessert!
Looking for more farro recipes?
Try using it in fried rice, tossing it with Brussels sprouts, or serving it in a springy asparagus salad or eggplant salad.
Autumn Farmhouse Salad
- 1 cup cooked farro (see notes)
- 1 sweet potato, chopped into cubes
- A few leaves kale, chopped or torn
- 2-3 cups salad greens
- 1-2 carrots, peeled into ribbons
- 1 apple, diced
- A few radishes, sliced
- Small handful of chopped parsley
- ½ cup chopped & toasted almonds
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- optional: ½ teaspoon maple syrup or a big squeeze of orange
- Sea salt and fresh black pepper
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the sweet potato cubes with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast until golden brown, about 35 minutes.
- Whisk together the dressing ingredients.
- In a large bowl, lightly massage the kale with a bit of the dressing until the kale wilts down. Add the farro and mix.
- Add the greens, carrots, apple, radishes, parsley, and almonds, and toss with as much dressing as you like. Taste, adding salt and pepper as needed.
Make ahead tips: everything can be made and stored in the fridge up to 2 days in advance. For best texture, I would suggest adding the lighter salad greens at the last minute and roasting the sweet potatoes just before you're ready to serve.
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Platter and Serving Pieces from West Elm
I love farro and this salad looks awesome! I would be tempted to roast the radishes too!
Eating this as I type. LOVE IT!!
hi,
i somehow was linked to your page when looking at carrie underwood’s healthy food related PINTEREST page. LOVE your recipes, photography and blog.so glad i discovered it so i can work with our 10 year old daughter to try some of your healthy recipes.LOVELEY work-thanks for all your(and your husband’s) fabulous efforts and talents!
This looks absolutely amazing!
I don’t have any farro, but I do have plenty of orzo. Do you think that orzo would be an acceptable substitute for farro in this dish, or would the texture be too different? I can’t wait to try this recipe!
it won’t be exactly the same, but I think it’ll be just fine – really, any grain could work here and I always love to use up what I have on hand!
This is my kind of salad. Love love LOVE the crunchy bits. Crunchy bits are very important I feel. Never cooked with farro before though so definitely going to try!
I’m with you on making farro… lots of work, but that nutty grain is just soooo worth it! This looks amazing 🙂
Apples and faro and carrots with ribbons. These are a few of my favorite things!
me too 🙂
I was so inspired by this salad I went out and bought farro tonight! Excited to try this soon 🙂
ha, so glad to hear – hope you like it!
I Really Love faro.taste of it amazing and also healthy and light food.
I love your salad recipes. Always great color and texture. Can’t wait to try this one!
Yet again another great meal that I will definitely have to attempt to re-create.
rae of love from berlin
You have to love a huge salad featuring everything under the sun! This sounds so hearty and satisfying. I would also be eating plenty of it for lunch, no question.
I love farro in salads! This looks amazing!
I have a bag of farro in my pantry that I have been meaning to use. I think I found the perfect thing to make!
I love Farro! The first time I had it was in Italy. It’s still the best salad I’ve ever had but I will have to try this!
ha, hopefully this one lives up 🙂
This sounds really delicious and it’s such a lovely combination of flavours and textures – definitely worth cooking up a batch of farro for!
This looks super delicious Jeanine! I love all the colour!
I’ve never had farro! Definitely need to try this!
I’ve always cooked farro like pasta…boiling in a bunch of salted water for about 25-30 minutes and then straining. This salad looks wonderful!!
thanks! wow that’s quick – mine usually takes much longer than that to get tender. (but it probably varies based on variety).
I cook farro like this: combine 2 cups water and 1 cup farro in a large pot. Bring to boil, reduce to low and cook, covered, 35 minutes. I like it room temperature with lots of veggies, like yours, or else warm with roasted mushrooms, chopped feta & fresh parsley. (thanks for the reminder!)
If you look for pearled or semi-pearled farro it cooks much more quickly! I think the outer “husk” is just cracked, the 20-30 minute pasta method is so easy you don’t even have to worry about measuring the water!