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1 cup farro
2 Tbsp White wine vinegar 4 Tbsp pine nuts |
1. Add farro to 5 qt salted water, bring to a boil, boil 25 minutes. Drain. 2. Toast pine nuts and add to drained farro. 3. In a jar with a lid combine mustard, vinegar, oil, coriander and ginger. Cover, shake well. Add dressing to farro and pine nuts. 4. Add the rest of the ingredients to the farro. Stir to combine. |
Overall: B
Yesterday I went off the rails and took everything I’ve learned from making whole grain salads and attempted to make up my own recipe. It was good but it has room for improvement.
What worked:
I love love love the mixture of farro grains and pine nuts. It just pleases me. I think I’ll stick with that for a while. This is a fairly hands off preparation and if I’d reserved the goat cheese and put it on at the last minute I could see this being something that would travel well and be an easy addition to a picnic potluck.
What didn’t work:
The mix could have used a stronger vinegar. I used white wine vinegar because it seemed reasonable but it’s just not bite-y enough. I think I’ll change this up and try white balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
The ginger and mustard were unnecessary and should be eliminated. I added mustard because I usually add that to help emulsify a vinaigrette.. but since this is added directly to the Farro I don’t think full emulsification is necessary. The ginger just didn’t add to the salad and was out of place.
Because I added the goat cheese to the still-warm Farro the cheese melted in and coated all the grains. This was good but I think I would prefer to serve it less warm with the goat cheese crumbled over the top.
I used spinach because it’s what I had on hand.. but it didn’t really bring much to the party. I think I would prefer this with flat leafed parsley or arugula.
