Orange County Food Blog

​Courtesy of Vincent Muraco and Joyce Goldstein at Huntington Beach's Zimzala restaurant (within the Shorebreak Hotel), this is a gorgeous, easy-to-assemble salad that you can get away with for another month or so, while the weather's still warm enough.

Apparently also known as emmer wheat (although I'd never heard that term), farro makes a toothsome change from deathly-dull pasta or potato salad.

And, as an extra bonus, it looks mighty pretty in the bowl.
The following serves eight as a side dish.

Ingredients:

Farro, cooked (1 cup raw)
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
½ cup diced red onion
½ cup diced fennel
½ cup diced carrot
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
3 tomatoes (optional)
1 handful arugula leaves (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
1 fresh red chile, minced (optional)
2 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained
¼ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped mint
¼ cup oil-cured olives (optional)

Directions:

Add the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to the cooled farro and toss to coat evenly. Fold in the onion, celery, fennel, carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, arugula, garlic and chile. Add the capers, parsley and mint. Taste. Adjust with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Garnish with olives. Serve at room temperature.