This salad is like autumn in a bowl—with roasted butternut, chewy farro, zippy pickled onion, and pepitas for crunch, you’ll savor every bite.
This was my lunch last week. I know that it may look less like lunch and more like penance, some apology for eating too many squares of salted-caramel-glazed fanned-apples-atop-1000-layers-of-buttery-pastry. I realize that most people think that when you start serving them bowls hearty grains and roasted squash that you might have an ulterior motive, like their thighs. I understand that most people don’t believe me when I say this, but it doesn’t make it any less true: I don’t eat food because it’s good for me; I eat it because I like it. And this was one of the most delicious lunch salads I’ve ever made.
Herein lies my approach to grain salads: I like whatever vegetables I’m using in the salad to be the bulk of it, and the grains to be the accent, like a crouton. When you make grain salad this way, you get to appreciate the texture, and not just lament that it’s not plush as a mound of fine couscous, something you’d hardly notice eating. This, however, does not mean that they’re to be crouton-free; all salads need punch and crunch, and here, it comes from toasted, salted pepitas (though any nut will do), crumbled ricotta salata (though any salty, crumbly cheese will do) and minced red onion that I pickled at the last minute in sherry vinegar.
The salad is not a miracle worker. It did not convince a picky toddler who likes roasted squash and farro separately to eat them together. It did not photograph particularly sharply in the scrap of remaining daylight I had left at 5 pm. And it didn’t make this nagging cough I have disappear, or save me from a diagnosis of bronchitis, something I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest is not really something anyone hopes to hear a week before their book comes out. But not a single one of these things will matter when you’re eating it because it’s like dividing a big bowl of fall weekend bliss — all pumpkin patch orange, golden hay and waning green flecks. You will want it to last and last.
The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook: Comes out ONE WEEK FROM TODAY. I am so excited that I keep spelling “book” with an extra-dramatic string of Oos, booooook, which seems fitting for its pre-Halloween release. You can preorder the book from these stores. The book tour listings are here. And if you can’t make it to an event, here’s another way to get a signed book. And next Tuesday, we’re all making candy.
Like most salads, this recipe works well as a template, meaning that many of the ingredients can be replaced with likeminded ones with little trouble. You can use other winter squashes in the place of the butternut (or even sweet potatoes), the farro could be replaced with barley, freekeh or another grain of your choice. The red onion could be shallots. The pepitas could be another toasted nut, roughly chopped and the ricotta salata could be feta or soft bits of goat cheese. The sherry vinegar could be a white wine vinegar.
The pearling process removes the inedible hull that surrounds the wheat, and farro is generally sold either pearled, semi-pearled or regular. The pearled will take the shortest time to cook. If you’re not sure what you have, just use the cooking directions on the package. Below, I have the cooking times/process for semi-pearled.
At-a-glance
Servings 4 to 6 (generous)
Time See text (roast 30-40 min, farro 30 min, pickling ~30 min)
Difficulty Moderate
Source Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients
Quantity Ingredient
1 medium butternut squash (2 lb), peeled, halved, seeds removed, cut into ¾-inch cubes
5–6 Tbsp olive oil, divided
— salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup semi-pearled farro
⅓ cup toasted, salted pepitas
3 oz ricotta salata (or similar salty cheese), crumbled/coarsely grated (~¾ cup) (omit for vegan)
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar
1 Tbsp water
½ tsp table salt
½ tsp granulated sugar
½ small red onion, finely chopped
Preheat the oven to 375 °F. Peel and halve the squash lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and cut into roughly ¾-inch chunks. Coat one large or two smaller baking sheets with a total of 2 tablespoons olive oil. Arrange the squash in a single layer, season with salt and pepper, and roast until tender, about 30 to 40 minutes, turning once midway. Set aside to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, cook the farro in a pot of simmering salted water until tender yet chewy, about 30 minutes (or follow package instructions if different). Drain and let cool slightly.
During roasting and cooking, whisk together sherry vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in a small bowl until dissolved. Stir in the onion—it need not be fully submerged. Cover and chill for about 30 minutes (less time still yields a nicely pickled onion).
In a large bowl, combine the cooled squash, farro, pickled onion with its brine, cheese, and pepitas. Toss with 3 tablespoons of the remaining olive oil (add the fourth tablespoon if needed). Season to taste. Serve immediately or refrigerate—it will keep for up to a week.
