Farro Salad

This is my second attempt to put farro on the map.  I wrote about farro in my very first food blog entry five months ago.  Farro can be found at Whole Foods and Berkeley Bowl.  I inspired one of my friends to cook with farro and she found this recipe for Farro Salad with Peas, Favas, Arugula and Tomatoes on Epicurious.com.  I’ve been enjoying this recipe all summer long and this recipe continues to be passed on to friends and family.  This is a perfect dish for the season, as you can buy practically all the ingredients minus the farro from the farmers market.  Fresh English peas, fava beans, and tomatoes are key to the success of this salad. 

Ingredients:

• 6 cups water
• 2 cups farro
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 cup shelled fresh fava beans
• 1 cup shelled fresh peas
• 2 cups fresh arugula
• 3 tomatoes

You really have only five simple steps to this recipe: 

1)  Farro. Combine 6 cups water and farro in medium saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium. Cover partially; simmer until farro is tender, about 20 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

2)  Dressing.  Whisk oil and vinegar in a bowl. Season with salt.

3)  Peas and Beans.  After shelling the English peas and fava beans, cook the fava beans in pot of boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Add peas and cook for an additional minute. Drain. Cool in bowl of ice water. Drain.  The fava beans have a second layer of skin that needs to be carefully removed.

4)  Arugula and tomatoes.  Use a salad spinner to clean the arugula and set aside.  After rinsing tomatoes, chop them up in small pieces.  I like using grape tomatoes, so I just cut those in half.

5)  Mix.  Add all the ingredients in a bowl and toss lightly. Add additional seasoning to taste.