Weekend Cooking: Farro Waldorf Salad

Happy Saturday (or Sunday for my friends on the other side of the world). I don't know how this week got away from me. I had a heavy workload so I mainly cooked tried-and-true, no recipe required meals: pasta with meat sauce, split pea soup, chicken and rice in the slow cooker.

I didn't even have time to go through a new cookbook or read a new foodie-heavy book. But all is not lost when it comes to today's post--I'm sharing a great recipe!

If you've been following along over the years, then you know I'm always looking for good lunch ideas. Yes, we can eat leftovers from dinner, but I'm often looking for non-sandwich lunches that don't need to be heated up. My husband is often away for lunch and almost never has access to a microwave.

This week's hit recipe came as a surprise. I was looking through a digital edition of this month's Food Network Magazine, and came across the following farro salad. I immediately thought, Lunch! I thought it looked good but I wasn't expecting it to be so amazingly delicious. We both loved it.

The good news is that with Trader Joe's 10-minute farro, I was able to put this salad together in a snap. And because I used powdered (and reconstituted) buttermilk for the dressing, I wasn't stuck with a bottle of leftovers. The main thing I did differently was to use regular raisins. I thought I had golden raisins in the house, but I didn't, so just went for black ones.

The recipe says this makes enough for 4 to 6 and I think that's accurate. We each had it for lunch for three days (6 servings) and it held up beautifully. This would be nice for a potluck or a summer cookout too. (photo scanned from the magazine)

Farro Waldorf Salad
Serves 4 to 6

• 1 cup farro
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 scallion sliced [I used 3]
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill [I used 2]
• 2 apples chopped
• 1 cup halved seedless red grapes
• 3 stalks celery, plus 1 cup chopped celery leaves
• 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup chopped parsley

Cook farro as the label directs, then spread on a baking sheet and let cool.

Make the dressing: whisk the mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, vinegar, scallion, and dill in a large bowl.

Add the apples, grapes, celery, walnuts, raisins, and farro to the bowl. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the parsley and celery leaves.

NOTE: I'm sharing this recipe with the Souper Sunday round-up at Deb's Kahakai Kitchen -- a great place to share soup and salad and sandwich recipes.

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

NOTE: Mr. Linky sometimes is mean and will give you an error message. He's usually wrong and your link went through just fine the first time. Grrrr.
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