This simple and elegant salad is surprisingly hearty and comforting. It’s loaded with ingredients that will give you a boost of energy to get through the day without feeling sluggish. This salad is so delicious with perfectly balanced flavors and textures. Nutty farro, salty parmesan and crisp, toasted almonds with juicy, sweet orange and tender greens. It’s all tossed in a tangy and fruity vinaigrette. I could honestly eat this entire bowl!
Here’s what you need for the salad:
The pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette for this salad is a star in its own right. Pomegranate juice is reduced, making it intensely sweet, sour and fruity. Then, it is whisked into a standard balsamic vinaigrette. This recipe makes just over a cup of vinaigrette, so you can keep enjoying this salad many times over!
Here’s what you need for the vinaigrette:
Reduce the pomegranate juice.
Do this first in a small sauce pan on medium heat until it measures 4 fluid ounces, which is a quarter of what you started with. This could take up to 30 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and measure it every couple minutes after 20.
Whisk the reduced pomegranate with the vinegar, dijon, honey, salt and olive oil. Keep the vinaigrette refrigerated for up to a month.
Toast the sliced almond in a dry pan on medium heat.
This makes them extra crisp and intensifies their flavor. Keep a steady eye on them and continuously toss them to make sure they get browned evenly. After just a few minutes they will be slightly golden and fragrant. Remove them from the heat and pour them into a bowl so they don’t continue to cook. They can go from perfectly golden to burnt very easily.
Supreme the oranges.
This is one of the first things I learned how to do in culinary school and it may look tedious, but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually quite easy. The point of doing this is to get beautiful, juicy segments of orange (or any citrus) without any of the bitter pith or little white fibers. All you do is slice off the top and bottom of the rind and stand the orange up on your cutting board. Then, with a sharp knife, slice from top to bottom between the rind and the flesh, trying to remove only the rind and the white pith.
Once you’ve removed the rind, you can see the separate segments of orange, Slice along the dividers to remove the segments. You could leave them whole, but I like to slice my orange segments in half or into thirds so I get a little bit of orange in every bite.
Shave parmesan with a vegetable peeler.
This will give you long, thin strips of the cheese. I love doing this for salads. It looks elegant and gives you big, salty bites of parmesan all throughout.
Assemble the salad.
Finally toss the cooked and cooled farro and almonds with the oranges, parmesan and greens, then pour in the pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette.
Give the salad a good toss to coat all the ingredients in the vinaigrette!
Other recipes to try:
Orange, Almond and Farro Salad
Ingredients
- 4 ounces (about 4 cups) greens any kind
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1 large navel orange
- 1/2 cup parmesan shaved
- 1 cup cooked farro
- 1/4 cup pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette
Instructions
- Toast almonds in a dry pan for a few minutes until golden and fragrant. Cool.Supreme the orange by removing the rind and pith with a sharp knife, then slice along the dividers to remove the segments. Cut the segments into halves.Use a vegetable peeler to shave long, thin slices of parmesan.Toss the oranges segments, toasted almonds, cooked farro, shaved parmesan and greens a big bowl with the vinaigrette.
Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 16 ounces pomegranate juice
- 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp dijon
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Heat the pomegranate juice in a small, non-reactive saucepan over medium heat until it reduces to 4 ounces (1/2 cup.) Once cooled, whisk the reduced pomegranate juice with the balsamic vinegar, honey, dijon, olive oil and salt. Keep refrigerated.