Crispy toasted farro tossed with zesty lemon, fresh mint, and creamy feta topped over charred summer squash and finished with a drizzle of mint vinaigrette: this Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad is truly the summer salad of your dreams.
Jump to RecipeI’m a big salad girl — that’s a known fact. Now, I’m not talking about a simple mixed greens salad that often sits at the top of the appetizer menu. No, in my eyes, “salad” is basically just the title given to a combination of vegetables, textures, and flavors all prepared with different techniques and thrown together. This Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad is the perfect example. It’s not your lettuce based greens, and it really could be considered more of a vegetable side. Still, I find this dish to have all the necessary marks of a good salad: a solid vinaigrette, creamy salty cheese, tons of crunch, and a quality base. That’s all there is to it. And, let me tell you, it’s absolutely perfect.
The breakdown…
To start off this Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad, you’ve got to go ahead and prep that farro. While it’s a bit of an extra step, toasted farro is truly one of my favorite ways to incorporate crunch into a salad. As is, farro is one of my favorite grains to begin with. If you aren’t familiar, I like to think of it as a mix between brown rice and bulgur. When it’s toasted, however, it is totally amped up into truly the best grain of al time. To do this, you’ve got to hit that dry farro on the stove for just about 2 minutes, making sure to mix it up while toasting so it doesn’t burn. After 2 minutes, the farro should be fragrant and nutty — that’s how you know it’s time to pour it into boiling water. Once in the water, you simply reduce the water to a simmer and cook the grain per usual.
toast it up…
Nothing too crazy complex, yet definitely and extra step worth doing. By toasting the farro, you don’t only get a nice hearty grain component to the salad, but you actually get a crunch factor that takes any salad above and beyond. The toasted farro has a nice crisp and chewy bite, so I like to think of it as a nut or seed of sorts… or something that just gives your salad a little extra oomph. It’s one of my fav parts of this Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad, so don’t skip it!!
Once you’ve got your farro all toasted, you simply have to toss it with some feta (my fav cheese, if you can’t tell), lemon juice and zest, fresh mint, and some radishes. I like to think of these ingredients as the “extras” to this dish. With feta, or really any creamy crumbly cheese (goat maybe? Cotija?… go with what you love!), you get that nice salty dairy factor that is delicious with the squash. Then, you’ve got all that lemon to brighten things up, some fresh mint to add in a little bit of a leafy texture, and some shallots or an additional source of crunch and color. With this little combo of goods, this salad really begins to come to life.
all about the squash!!
But, in order to fully prepare this Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad, you need to make the star of the show: the grilled summer squash. Summer squash (aka yellow squash and zucchini) are basically blank canvases, in my opinion. Honestly, it’s typically the vegetable that excites me the least. That being said, I still love to use it as a base for dishes like these, simply because I get to be creative with the preparation. In this Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad, I slice the squash into thin strips — almost like what you would do for a zucchini rollatini or lasagna. I then hit the slices with a generous amount of olive oil, salt, and pepper, then they hit the grill pan.
The grill pan is the easiest way to do this, in my opinion. If you don’t have one, you could also use an outdoor grill, but you will probably want to cut your squash into thicker pieces so they don’t fall apart. Alternatively, you could get a good char using a cast iron skillet, but it won’t be quite the same. Either way, grill the squash and zucchini for a few minutes, or until nice char marks form on each side. After that, they’re good to go!
that mint drizzle…
Last up, you’ve got to make the mint vinaigrette to drizzle over top the whole dish. This mint vinaigrette is super simple — I mean, you really just throw everything into a blender or food processor and mix until smooth. Basically, you’ve got yourself a nice mint arugula pesto minus the nuts. With tons of freshness from the mint, a bite from the arugula, some acid from the lemon juice and red wine vinegar, and some olive oil, water, and honey to smooth everything out: this vinaigrette is perfectly balanced. Moreover, it’s the perfect drizzle to go on top of the rest of your salad.
This Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad is definitely not your average summer salad. Still, it’s super easy and versatile. I often prepare it for dinner with my Chicken Souvlaki Skewers, blackened Salmon, roasted tofu, Grilled Steak, or my Panko Lemon Crusted Grouper. But, it would also make for a wonderful addition to any summer dinner party. I mean, it’s a pretty impressive dish, yet it’s still quite simple. To me, that constitutes the perfect dish for entertaining.
Really, though, however, whenever, and wherever you prep this Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad, I know it will be a winner. Let me know if you make it in the comments below! Enjoy:)
Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad
Course: main course, side dish, saladCuisine: summer, vegetarianDifficulty: easy6
servings20
minutes30
minutes50
minutesCrispy toasted farro tossed with zesty lemon, fresh mint, and creamy feta topped over charred summer squash and finished with a drizzle of mint vinaigrette: this Grilled Summer Squash Mint and Toasted Farro Salad is truly the summer salad of your dreams.
Ingredients
- mint vinaigrette:
2 cups loosely packed fresh mint
1 cup baby arugula
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup water
½ a lemon, juiced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
2 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper, to taste
- assembly:
2 zucchini, thinly sliced lengthwise (about ¼ inch thick)
2 yellow squash, thinly sliced lengthwise (about ¼ inch thick)
Olive oil, as needed
Salt and pepper, to taste
¾ cup feta cheese, cubed or crumbled
¾ cup dry farro
1 lemon, zested and juiced
½ cup fresh mint, torn
1 shallot, finely diced
¼ cup toasted pine nuts
Red pepper flakes, to taste
Instructions
- For the farro: Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan.. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Once hot, add the farro to the skillet and toast for about 2 minutes, or until fragrant. Then, transfer the toasted farro to the pot of water, reduce the pot to medium-low, and allow the farro to simmer for about 20 minutes. Drain from the water, and immediately toss the hot farro with the feta, lemon juice, lemon zest, mint, shallot, and pine nuts. Season with freshly ground pepper and red pepper flakes, to taste.
- For the mint vinaigrette: In a food processor or blender, mix all of the vinaigrette ingredients until smooth.
- For the squash: Using a full bodied olive oil spray or a kitchen brush, cover both sides of the zucchini and squash slices with oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Heat a greased grill pan over high heat. Once hot, add the zucchini and squash and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until nice char marks form. You may need to do this in 2-3 batches.
- Start off your salad with a base of the charred zucchini and squash. Layer on some of the farro feta mixture, and finish with a drizzle of the mint vinaigrette. Enjoy!