Roasted Vegetable and Farro Salad with Lemon Tahini
Farro and deeply roasted vegetables tossed while warm, so the grain drinks the dressing, holding its texture for four days.
Why it works
Dressing a grain salad while it is still warm is the whole technique. Warm farro absorbs dressing into the grain rather than leaving it pooled at the bottom of the container, which is why this tastes seasoned on Thursday instead of dry with a puddle. Farro itself holds up better in storage than rice or quinoa: it is a whole wheat grain with enough structure to stay chewy for four days. Roasting the vegetables hard, until the edges genuinely darken, converts their sugars and gives the salad the savoury depth that steamed vegetables never provide. The tahini dressing supplies fat, which the carotenoids in the squash and peppers need to be absorbed at all.
Whole grains have consistent cohort support for cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Fat improves carotenoid absorption, which is well demonstrated in controlled feeding studies.
Ingredients
- 250 g farro
- 500 g butternut squash, cubed
- 2 red onions, cut into wedges
- 2 bell peppers, sliced thick
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 400 g tin chickpeas, drained
- For the dressing: 3 tbsp tahini, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 grated garlic clove, 4 to 6 tbsp warm water
- A large handful of parsley, and 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
Method
- Heat the oven to 220C. Toss the squash, onion, pepper, and chickpeas with the oil and cumin, spread across two trays rather than one, and roast for 30 to 35 minutes until the edges are properly dark.
- Simmer the farro for 25 minutes until tender with a bite, then drain.
- Whisk the dressing, adding the warm water a spoonful at a time. It will seize and look broken before it turns smooth, which is normal.
- Toss the warm farro with two thirds of the dressing so it soaks in, then fold through the roasted vegetables.
- Cool before boxing. Add parsley, pumpkin seeds, and the remaining dressing at serving.
