This bright, flavor-packed Mediterranean chickpea farro salad makes an easy satisfying dinner or potluck dish to share! Chickpeas and nutty farro mixed with chopped veggies, fresh herbs, and a bold Mediterranean dressing. Make it a couple hours ahead for full flavor impact. Add a little shrimp as I show you here, or lemon chicken. Be sure to grab all my tips below.
I love being able to throw a meal together out of humble Mediterranean pantry staples like grains and pulses (beans, chickpeas, peas, etc.) And as the weather has turned warm over here in Atlanta, it's only fitting to use these staples in a simple, bright, and all-sorts-of tasty supper salad.
Enter: Mediterranean Chickpea Farro Salad (with shrimp or not!)
The Gist of this Chickpea Farro Salad
This Mediterranean chickpea farro salad is the perfect make-ahead for a potluck or your next big BBQ gathering. But it also makes a perfectly satisfying dinner for my family.
The two heros of this nutrition power-house salad are chickpeas and farro, an ancient wheat grain. Together, chickpeas and farro here provide loads of fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
It's easy to make the farro ahead of time, which makes this farro salad a breeze to throw together any night of the week.
Throw cooked farro and a couple cups of chickpeas in a large bowl. You can build your salad from here, using what fresh ingredients you have on hand. I added cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and chopped green onions. The big Mediterranean flavors here come from fresh herbs--a large handful of parsley and fresh mint--and a zippy citrus and olive oil dressing with a few spices.
This salad is great if you make it a couple hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate to let the flavors meld. Or, make it a few minutes ahead and leave at room temperature as you work on other things.
You can totally serve this salad in its vegan version as is, but this time I added shrimp.
Additions to This Chickpea Farro Salad
Shrimp here is totally optional, but maybe adds an element of fancy to complete the meal. Or, you can do lemon chicken instead.
If you want to add shrimp, simply season it with salt and pepper and toss in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. Cook in a skillet on high for about 4 to 5 minutes in total until it turns pink (check out shrimp cooking tips in this post, if you need to.)
I like to save a bit of the dressing to toss the shrimp in before adding to the farro salad.
A Couple Tips
- Make ahead: You can make the farro ahead of time and just mix on the day you plan to serve this salad. You can make the salad a couple hours before serving, mix and refrigerate to let the flavors marry. It's good served cold or at room temperature.
- Leftovers: If you prepare farro on the same day you make this salad, the salad should keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. If you're not planning to eat much of the salad on the day it's prepared, reserve a bit of the dressing to add later as needed. Also, it's a good idea to store the shrimp separately in the fridge.
HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE ½ CUP HABIT?
Let me point out, in case you missed it, that in this main course salad is a ½ cup serving of good-for-you pulses in the form of chickpeas!
Nutrition-filled pulses, like dry chickpeas; lentils; peas; and beans. Pulses pack a lot of protein, and they are rich in complex carbohydrates, fiber and B vitamins!
If you don’t already eat a good portion of pulses, a simple goal would be to add to your diet just ½ cup of pulses three times per week (a total of 1 ½ cups of pulses per week, which is what USDA recommends). This is what USA Pulses and Pulse Canada call the Half-Cup Habit! Check it out here. I've included more recipes below.
More Recipes to Try
Mediterranean Three Bean Salad
Mediterranean Potato Hash with Asparagus and Chickpeas
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Mediterranean Chickpea Farro Salad with Shrimp
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4 for dinner 1x
Description
Bright, flavor-packed Mediterranean chickpea and farro salad with fresh veggies, herbs and a zippy citrus and olive oil dressing. You can add shrimp as instructed here or serve vegan. Lemon chicken is another great option to add. Be sure to see tips and cook's notes.
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cup/345 g cooked farro (you'll start with 1 cup dry and cook according to package, see recipe notes)
- 2 cups/330 g cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed (canned chickpeas are fine)
- 10 oz/283.495 g cherry tomatoes, halved (I used different color tomatoes)
- 1 English cucumber, diced
- 2 green onions, trimmed and chopped (both white and green parts)
- 1 large handful fresh parsley, chopped
- 15 mint leaves, chopped
For Shrimp
- 1 lb/453.592 g large shrimp, peeled and deviened
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Extra virgin olive oil (I used Greek Early Harvest)
For Salad Dressing
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 5 tbsp/ approx 75 ml extra virgin olive oil (I used Greek Early Harvest)
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- 2 tsp/202 g dried oregano
- ½ tsp/ 1.01 g ground cumin
- ½ tsp/1.03 g sumac
Instructions
- In a small bowl or mason jar, add the dressing ingredients (lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, and sumac.) Whisk well, or close the mason jar and shake until well-combined.
- In a large salad bowl, combine cooked farro with the chickpeas and remaining salad ingredients (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion, parsley, and mint leaves).
- Pour the majority of the dressing on top of the salad, toss to combine (leave a bit of the dressing, like 3 tablespoon or so for the shrimp.) Set aside to allow flavors to meld.
- To make the shrimp. Place uncooked shrimp in a bowl, pat dry with some paper towels. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil and toss to coat.
- Heat a skillet or griddle over high heat. Add shrimp and cook on one side till it starts to turn pink, turn over and cook on both sides (4 to 5 minutes in total.) Turn heat off and add the remaining 3 tablespoon of dressing to the hot shrimp, toss to coat.
- To serve, transfer the farro salad to a serving platter or individual serving bowls. Add shrimp on top.
Notes
- Cook's Tip for How to Cook Farro: You can cook farro a couple days in advance and keep in the fridge in a tight-lid glass container. Start with 1 cup dry farro combined with 3 cups of water and a good pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes. Cooked farro will keep a pleasantly chewy bite.
- Serving Tip: If serving as dinner, this recipe will easily serve 4. Otherwise, it will serve 8 or more as a starter or alongside other potluck dishes.
- Recipe Variations/Vegan etc: Shrimp is optional here. To make this chickpea farro salad vegan, simply omit shrimp. If you're looking for other options, try this quick skillet lemon chicken in place of shrimp.
- Make ahead: You can make the farro ahead of time and just mix on the day you plan to serve this salad. You can make the salad a couple hours before serving, mix and refrigerate to let the flavors marry. It's good served cold or at room temperature.
- How long with Leftovers Keep? If you prepare farro on the same day you make this salad, the salad should keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. If you're not planning to eat much of the salad on the day it's prepared, reserve a bit of the dressing to add later as needed. Also, it's a good idea to store the shrimp separately in the fridge.
- Visit The Mediterranean Dish online store for our Greek olive oil collection, all-natural and organic spices and more!
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Category: Salad
- Method: Tossed
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
Outstanding and super easy. Love the sumac in the salad dressing. Will make this dish to share with others when we can finally have a gathering again!
Really nice salad. I had left over farro from the night before, so was looking to have something for lunch the next day. This was perfect!! Came together quickIey. I think that caned tuna would also be nice in here. Thank you for a lovely and satisfying salad.
Thanks for the tuna suggestion!! So glad you enjoyed this one!!
I am gluten sensitive and was wondering how this would work with quinoa?
Sure! I think quinoa would work in this recipe!
What can you use if you do not have SUMAC?
Hi Meg, Sumac is a very unique flavor, so there is not a perfect subsitute out there, but you can omit the sumac if you like and adjust other spices to your liking. Otherwise, you can find sumac here: https://shop.themediterraneandish.com/product/sumac/
Absolutely delicious! Loved the colors and textures - crunchy and refreshing. I served the salad at room temperature with the shrimp right off the grill. Then, today, we had the leftovers cold. Delicious either way!
That's awesome that you got two great meals out of this one! Thanks so much, Meg!
Super simple and sooo delicious. I’ll cut back on the parsley a bit next time I make it. It’s even better the next day! Thanks. Love your videos!
I loved this fresh salad, very filling and tasty.
I made some changes to the sauce (not a fan of cumin) and I used very little as it was, but this is a great recipe!
Thank you for sharing! I'm glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I can't eat chickpeas, any thoughts on what I could replace these with that would still work?
Do you eat other beans? For example white beans or black beans would work here. You can also try peas.
This looks awesome. Do you serve the shrimp cold or hot?
Hot off the grill. Marinated them in some oil/lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Had some the next day for lunch and the shrimp were cold but still delicious.
This was fantastic. Grilled the shrimp with garlic, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. It's asparagus time here so I parboiled it for 2 minutes and used it instead of cucumber!
Trying an asparagus recipe tonight.
Thanks!
Wonderful, Mark! Thanks so much for sharing your variation!
Excellent summer salad. No fresh Mint or Parsley so I substituted Basil. I’m always excited to try new recipes from this blog/email.
Wonderful, Charlie! Basil is a great substitute here. So appreciate your kind note.
We made this last night, and we loved it. Full of great flavor and filling. We have been trying new recipes recently and this was our favorite. I also appreciated the nutrition information.
Jarett, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It's one of my new favorites as well.
Hi, I love your recipes but are you able to provide nutritional values per serving?
Angela, thank you! You can see the nutrition information on the label just below the recipe notes. In this particular case, if you serve this salad for dinner, you can get 4 large servings (bowls).
When you call for mint what kind? Spearmint, peppermint? I’m never sure.
Most of the time, i use fresh spearmint leaves. But either would work.
Such a healthy, yummy, delicious dish!! Thank you for sharing!!
So glad you liked it!
I skipped the shrimp because I'm allergic to shellfish, and this salad was still delicious! Love the simple lemony dressing.
Awesome! Ya, the shrimp here is totally optional, and I'm glad you could tailor this salad to your needs!