This easy farro salad recipe is the perfect summer side dish. It's loaded with grilled corn, juicy cherry tomatoes, and a fresh basil vinaigrette. Easy to customize and simple to prep ahead of time!
Of all the summer recipes in our archives, this might be the one I make most often. I look forward to this grain salad every year, and make it at least once a week during tomato season. - Jessie
We're using our go-to basil vinaigrette here: It's made in a bullet-style blender for a smooth dressing that packs a ton of summer flavor.
This salad is very forgiving: Use our recipe as a jumping-off point, then add extra veggies and protein or try a few of our suggested substitutions to make it your own!
Ingredients
Scroll to the recipe card below for a full ingredients list with exact quantities.
- Fresh basil is the backbone of our salad dressing. This recipe calls for one packed cup of basil, but it's very forgiving: Use more or less to suit your tastes.
- Farro is our go-to grain here: We love its nutty, earthy flavor and slightly chewy texture. We've tested this recipe with Wegmans Pearled Farro and Bob's Red Mill Organic Pearled Farro.
- Grilled corn adds sweetness and depth to this salad. Grill the sweet corn ahead of time, remove the corn kernels, and store in the fridge until you're ready to use it!
Variations and Substitutions
- Add protein. Salmon, steak, shrimp, and meal prepped protein are tasty here (try our Dutch oven pulled chicken or slow cooker shredded chicken). Add chick peas or butter beans for extra protein and fiber.
- Swap the farro for other grains like brown rice, quinoa, or barley, or use orzo (à la our orzo pasta salad!)
- Cheese! Add feta cheese, crumbled goat cheese, or shaved parmesan.
- Add greens like kale or arugula to make this a heartier, leafy salad (similar to our tortellini arugula salad!)
- Extra summer veggies like grilled zucchini or eggplant, roasted beets, sliced red onion, and bell pepper are great additions.
Step by step instructions
Cook the farro
Cook farro according to package directions; set it aside while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
Add the farro to this salad while it's still warm (à la our sweet potato spinach salad) or let it cool completely before assembling this salad recipe.
Meal Prep Tip: Make a batch of farro at the start of the week, let it cool completely, then store in an airtight container in the fridge until you're ready to use it!
Make the dressing
Add basil, olive oil, dijon mustard, and red wine vinegar to a blender with a generous pinch of kosher salt. Blend until smooth.
We recommend a bullet-style blender here, as it creates the smoothest purée. See our full red wine basil vinaigrette article for more details on this dressing, including equipment notes, storage, and substitution options!
Assemble the salad
Add cooked farro, grilled corn kernels, and halved cherry tomatoes to a large bowl. Drizzle the basil vinaigrette over the top, then toss to combine.
Storage
Store leftover salad in the fridge for up to 5 days.
As it sits, the farro will soak up the dressing. Add a drizzle of olive oil or additional basil dressing to refresh days-old farro salad and bring it back to life.
Tomatoes tend to dry out in the fridge. For best results, we recommend adding room temperature cherry tomatoes just before serving.
Serving suggestions
- This spinach prosciutto salad also uses a quick basil vinaigrette: Just double the dressing here and you've prepped both recipes!
- Serve with grilled salmon or baked mustard salmon.
- Make extra farro and pair this side dish with our farro and arugula bean salad.
- Add a few homemade crab cakes on the side!
- Pair with a simple maple dijon chicken or our one pot spinach artichoke chicken.
- Keep the summer flavors going with these roasted carrots with dill pesto.
FAQs
This salad is great warm OR cold! Let the corn and farro cool completely before tossing if you'd like a cold salad.
Yes! It's easy to prep the components for this salad in advance. You can meal prep this recipe one of two ways:
1. Prep and assemble the salad, but leave the tomatoes out. Refrigerate the farro + grilled corn + dressing mixture up to 5 days, then add fresh, room temperature cherry tomatoes just before serving. Tomatoes can dry out and develop a mushy texture in the fridge: Adding them at the last minute helps preserve their flavor and texture while still letting you do the bulk of the prep ahead of time!
2. Prep each component separately, refrigerate in individual airtight containers for up to 5 days, and assemble the salad when you're ready to serve:
- Make the farro and let it cool completely before storing.
- Grill the corn ahead of time, cool completely, and remove the kernels from the cob.
- Make the dressing ahead of time. Note that extra virgin olive oil will solidify a bit in the fridge: If your dressing has been refrigerated for a few days, it might look like it's solidified quite a bit. This is normal! Let cold dressing sit on the counter for 5-10 minutes, then stir well to loosen it back up. You can also whisk in a splash of warm water to thin the dressing out a bit.
We recommend using a bullet-style blender for this dressing: In our testing, that blender style achieves the smoothest possible purée. (We also use this technique in our lemon tahini dressing, which features fresh parsley!)
When you're working with fresh herbs and blending in such small quantities, those tiny blenders really do an excellent job of getting the dressing very, very smooth.
In the photos above, we used the single-serve cup attachment that came with our Ninja Blender.
If you don't have a bullet-style blender, you can make this dressing with an immersion blender and a large jar (in our testing, this method also achieved a very smooth purée).
A full-size blender will work here, but our testers note that especially large blenders don't always blend this dressing as smoothly as their smaller counterparts. If you have a large blender that's struggling to get this dressing as smooth as you'd like, try doubling the recipe: This gives the blades more herbs to "grab" onto as they blend, and will help you get a smoother final result.
We don't recommend using a food processor in this recipe, especially if your food processor is on the larger side (12-14 cups): There just isn't enough volume here to properly blend in a food processor, and you'll end up with a chunkier dressing (even if you double the recipe).
For more guidance on this dressing, see our full basil vinaigrette dressing recipe post.
Yes! Swap the red wine vinegar for apple cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice. Use any herb you like in the dressing: We love basil, but it's also great with fresh cilantro, chives, or dill. Add a clove of garlic or a few pieces of shallot to this dressing to give it more of a bite.
Check out our full red wine basil vinaigrette tutorial for more details on substitutions and technique!
Did you make this recipe? Leave a comment and star rating below to let us know how it turned out!
📖 Recipe
Summer Farro Salad with Basil Dressing
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Mediterranean Inspired
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This simple grain salad is perfect for summer! Grilled sweet corn and cherry tomatoes pair beautifully with earthy farro and a bright basil vinaigrette.
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- 1 packed cup fresh basil
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt, to taste
For the salad:
- 1 cup uncooked farro
- 2-3 ears of grilled corn, kernels removed
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
Instructions
- Make the dressing. Add basil, dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, and olive oil to a small blender with a pinch of kosher salt. Blend until you have a smooth sauce. Set aside.
- Cook farro according to package directions. Let cool and set aside.
- Assemble the salad. Add cooked farro, grilled corn kernels, and cherry tomatoes to a large mixing bowl. Add basil dressing and toss to combine. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
Additions and Substitutions. Use lemon juice or apple cider vinegar in place of red wine vinegar in the dressing. Swap the farro for barley, brown rice, quinoa, or orzo. Add extra veggies (grilled zucchini or eggplant, bell pepper, sliced red onion) or cheese (feta, shaved parmesan). For a heartier salad, add leafy greens (arugula, kale, spinach) just before serving.
Make ahead tips. Cook or prep the individual components (farro, corn, dressing) ahead of time, let cool completely, and store in airtight containers in the fridge until you're ready to assemble. Alternatively, assemble the salad with everything but the tomatoes, and store in the fridge for up to 5 days. Tomatoes will dry out in the fridge; we recommend adding them just before serving for best results.
Equipment. We prefer a bullet-style blender here, as it creates an exceptionally smooth dressing.
This recipe is very forgiving! Adjust the exact amount of each ingredient to suit your tastes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups
- Calories: 574
- Sugar: 5.5 g
- Sodium: 149.2 mg
- Fat: 43.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 45 g
- Protein: 8.9 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
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