January Jeliciousness: Comfort Food Farro Salad

I'm very lucky that my friend Lucy Lean has agreed to share a recipe. She's the reason I got to meet Yotam Ottolenghi! If you don't have it, try to get a copy of her book Made In America: Our Best Chefs Reinvent Comfort Food.  Because, as you know, January is all about comfort food. -- MsW

From Lucy Lean at LadlesandJellyspoons:

As we head into January with so many posts on the internet about diets, healthy resolutions, exercise, juice fasts and cutting out entire food groups I was so pleased to get this invitation from Miss Whistle to post a recipe that people will actually love to make and eat.

It's one of my go to favorite comfort foods - farro. Nancy Silverton makes the ultimate farro salad at Pizzeria Mozza (also available on the Mozza 2 Go menu) dripping in olive oil!  Farro is surprisingly healthy and immensely satisfying. The great thing about farro is you can add whatever happens to be in your fridge - I found feta, tomatoes and cucumbers for a greek salad. You can even make it sweet with berries and maple syrup for breakfast.

I am a huge fan of Trader Joe's - they are great for lots of really delicious European items - think patisserie from France and salumi from Italy, chocolate from Switzerland and Feta from Greece. So imagine my delight when I found little bags of quick cook farro - farro in 10 minutes! Woo Hoo!

1/4 cup of farro
chicken stock
8 cherry tomatoes
1 persian cucumber
chopped mint (or any fresh herbs you have - oregano is also good)
lite feta
salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil (the best you can afford!)

makes enough for lunch for one

1. Cook the farro - Yesterday for lunch I cooked the farro in some chicken stock (left over at the bottom of the pot of homemade chicken noodle soup from the previous night) and water. Farro is one of those ingredients that takes on the flavor of whatever you choose to add to it.
2. Chop up baby tomatoes, cucumber and fresh herbs.
3. When the farro is cooked, drain and cool. Place in a bowl, add the tomatoes and cucumber. Crumble some lite feta on top, season and drizzle with lots of really good quality olive oil. ENJOY!