This Mediterranean farro salad is packed with the flavours of Greece! Featuring pan-seared chicken thighs on an ancient grain salad of farro with green olives, tomato, and cucumber. Your Instant Pot cooks the farro to chewy, tender perfection. As a result, this recipe is perfect for a hearty, wholesome dinner.
Is Farro better for you than rice?
Although both brown rice and farro are wholesome grains, farro is quite a bit healthier. Farro is:
- a good source of protein
- high in fiber, so it’s good for your digestive system
- good for overall cardiovascular health
- rich in vitamins and minerals – all combined, one serving of farro has more than 20 essential vitamins and minerals!
Aside from its deliciousness, I think one of the best things about farro is its versatility. You can serve it as a side dish, add it to soups, or make a farro salad. But for a real treat, add cooked farro to your hamburgers, casseroles, or even to your morning eggs!
Thanks to its larger size, farro doesn’t get soggy like some grains can. As a result, it keeps really well, so you can make it ahead to use for easy meal prep. My favorite way to use it is in salads. This warm farro salad is incredibly delicious.
Mediterranean farro salad ingredients
This dinner salad is hearty, flavourful, and packed with wholesome ingredients, including:
- pan-seared chicken thighs
- green olives
- cucumber
- tomatoes
- red onion
- Parmesan cheese
If you need the salad to be dairy free, you can omit the cheese. Unfortunately, farro is an ancient grain of wheat, so this farro salad is not gluten-free.
How to make Mediterranean Farro Salad
- The first step in making this salad is to cook the farro. Farro takes about 30 minutes to cook on a stove top. We’re going to speed things up by making Instant Pot farro instead. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, see my post, “How to Cook Farro” for stove top instructions.
- After you get the farro in the pressure cooker, take your chicken thighs out of the refrigerator. You’ll want to give them time to warm up before you pan sear them.
- For the best sear, preheat the pan over medium heat for 7 or 8 minutes before you add the chicken. To prevent the chicken from burning, don’t preheat the pan over a higher heat.
- While the farro cooks and your pan preheats, clean and cut your vegetables, then set them aside.
- The next step is to pan-sear and cook the chicken thighs. Once the chicken is cooked through, let it rest for a few minutes while you assemble the farro salad.
- Serve the chicken on top of the farro salad, along with the pan juices. Dinner is served!
Mediterranean Farro Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked farro
- 2 chicken thighs - (preferably taken out of the fridge 15-20 minutes before cooking)
- 1/2 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp poultry seasoning
- 1/2 English cucumber
- 1/2 cup grape tomatoes
- 1/4 red onion
- 1/3-1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1/2-1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- sea salt
- pepper
- olive oil
- 1/2 lemon
- honey
- 1/4-1/2 cup green olives
Instructions
- Rinse 1 cup farro in a colander, then transfer to Instant Pot and add 1 cup of water (+ sea salt if desired). Lock the lid and turn the valve to sealing position. Set to 22 minutes on high pressure, let the pressure release naturally (15-20 minutes). If you don't have an instant pot, here is a complete guide on How to Cook Farro.
- Preheat skillet over medium-low for at least 6-7 minutes until nice and hot. (do not, I repeat, do not preheat over higher heat to accelerate the process).
- Add butter and olive oil to hot pan, swirl around for a few seconds until the butter melted, then add chicken thighs (preferably not fridge-cold) to hot pan and season generously with poultry seasoning (or sea salt/pepper) and pan fry for 6-8 minutes on one side, 6-8 minutes on the other, then reduce heat to lowest setting, cover pan with a lid and let steam for an extra 5 minutes.
- In the meantime, wash and chop the cucumber. Wash and chop grape tomatoes. Peel and chop the red onion. And wash and chop parsley.
- Add vegetables and herb, 1 cup cooked farro, green olives, freshly grated Parmesan to a large bowl and then season with sea salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and honey. Stir well and serve in a bowl.
- Top farro salad with pan-fried chicken thigh and top with pan juices.
Chicken Salad with Grapes
Quick & Easy Chicken And Rice Casserole
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
Debbie Hawley says
Easy & very good & healthy recipe! I did a little less parm & 3 thighs that we split bc that’s what was in the Costco package once I thawed. Other than my protein shake in late morning I only eat one fork meal a day so needed extra protein in the chicken. My husband liked it too! It only took half the cooked farro so now I’m looking for another recipe that includes farro? Very tasty! Any suggestions?
Lorena Grater says
Plenty of farro recipes on my website :) Just use the search bar.
Kathleen says
This was good! I would make it again for sure. Thank you for introducing me to farrow, I get it now. Note: get flat leaf parsley.
Jenni says
Made this tonight but used quinoa because I couldn’t find farro….it was delicious!!!!
jackie. best says
Would using brown rice reduce calories in this recipe. I do not know what farrow is.. Sounds delicious.
Lorena Grater says
It’s about the same in terms of calories. Farro is wheat.
Tammy says
I love the flavours in this! I use hemp hearts instead of the farro, to make it gluten free.
Kari Keister says
So what is the serving size? 1 cup, 1/2 cup? I’m not sure how much 1 cup uncooked equates to cooked farro. I made extra farro. Just threw the salad together.
Lorena Grater says
the nutritional information is simply for 1/2 of the whole finished recipe.
Kari Keister says
Oh! I should read! It does say 1 cup cooked farro. Sorry!! Salad is delicious.
Robin says
Is the nutritional information for the whole recipe or per serving? All the calculations look really high – that’s half a day’s calories for one meal!
Lorena Grater says
It’s for one serving, so half of the recipe. To reduce calories you could use only half the amount of Parmesan and leave out the olives. I eat about 1,800 calories a day so this is about the amount of calories I eat per meal.
Liz Smith says
This is now my favourite grain salad! It is so easy to make and packed full of flavour!
Line Geerts says
Made it last evening! Thank you for the recipe! Very easy and so tasty! Will definitely do it again!
Lorena says
I’m so incredibly happy to read you liked it :D
Kab says
Great recipe!! Very easy and tasty!!
Manu says
Yummy!!!
We are eating it right now and it is delicious!!
I cheated on the chicken though. I bought a rotisserie chicken from Sprouts, cut it into pieces and sautéed them in a little ghee butter.
We shall make it again! Thank you!!!
Lorena says
Sounds like the best way to cheat ;) Will copy your idea soon, lol
Lauren says
This looks so good!!