Mediterranean Roasted Sweet Potato & Farro Salad
This hearty roasted sweet potato and farro salad has delicious a Mediterranean spin to it. It's a great vegetarian weeknight dinner!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 9, 2024
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Sometimes, I like to imagine that I live a more glamorous food blogger existence. One in which lunch is more than a hodgepodge of cookbook leftovers, and I make myself proper dinners every night. This all takes place in my lovely, subway-tiled, self-cleaning kitchen (a girl can dream!).
My reality is far different. I’ve been intensely focused on photographing the breakfast chapter for my cookbook, so I have been living in yoga pants and surviving on scones lately. My dining table has moved to the middle of my living room, and a tripod now stands where my coffee table usually goes. Everything is a mess.
With impeccable timing, Blue Apron offered to send me three meal’s worth of ingredients (two portions each), complete with simple instructions on how to make them. They basically fed me a proper lunch for the first time in a week. It was amazing. I could have cried.
When life gets super busy, it’s so easy for healthy meals to fall by the wayside. Good dinners are more than just fuel—they’re a time to rest, recharge and connect with friends and family. They’re important, and they don’t make themselves.
Blue Apron makes dinners easier by shipping perfectly portioned, sustainably produced ingredients with simple, chef-created menus. I almost felt a little guilty accepting outside help, and I was worried about creating more waste with extra packaging. I was relieved when I opened the box to see that they have totally minimized the packaging (no styrofoam!), and even offer recycling programs. I’m going to ship my box back to them (for free) via USPS—here’s more information about their recycling options.
During this hectic time, it was quite a relief to know that I had all the ingredients I needed waiting for me in the refrigerator. Blue Apron deliveries seem like a perfect solution for particularly busy weeks, or for date nights in, or for the first week at a new house. I can see myself gifting a shipment to new parents who love to cook, too.
So today, I’m sharing the delightful roasted sweet potato and farro salad that Blue Apron shipped to me. It’s something that I would normally cook, but I wouldn’t have thought to add a Middle Eastern spin to it with mint, ricotta salata and sumac. Sumac is a reddish spice with a delicious, almost lemony, tart flavor.
You can peruse more of Blue Apron’s recipes over here, no membership or purchase required. If you want to try Blue Apron for yourself, they’re offering a special to Cookie and Kate readers—the first 50 readers will get two free meals on their first Blue Apron order! Just click here.
Mediterranean Roasted Sweet Potato & Farro Salad
This hearty roasted sweet potato and farro salad has delicious a Middle Eastern spin to it, thanks to the sumac, lemon, mint and ricotta salata. Recipe yields 2 large servings or 3 to 4 more modest servings.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup farro (the semi-pearled variety cooks faster)
- 1 pound sweet potatoes (1 large or 2 small), peeled and sliced into 1” cubes
- 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 2 teaspoons ground sumac (optional but recommended)
- Salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 bunch Tuscan kale (also known as Lacinato kale), ribs removed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sugar or honey or maple syrup
- 1 medium lemon
- 1 handful fresh mint leaves
- 3 tablespoons roughly chopped hazelnuts
- ⅓ cup (about 2 ounces) crumbled salata cheese or feta cheese (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. To cook the farro: Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat. Add the farro, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the farro is tender to the bite but still pleasantly chewy (pearled farro will take as little as 15 minutes; unprocessed farro will take 25 to 40 minutes). Drain off the excess water and return the farro to the pot. Set aside.
- To roast the sweet potatoes: Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup. Place the cubed sweet potato on the pan and drizzle with enough olive oil to lightly coat the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle the sumac over the sweet potatoes, followed by salt and pepper, then toss until the sweet potatoes are thoroughly coated in oil and spices. Arrange the sweet potatoes in a single layer and roast for 20 to 30 minutes, tossing halfway, until they are caramelized on the edges and tender when pierced with a fork.
- To pickle the onion: In a small pan or medium pot, combine the onion, vinegar, sugar and ½ cup water. Cook over medium heat, occasionally swirling the pan, for 4 to 8 minutes, or until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid is slightly reduced in volume. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Once the farro is done cooking, add the chopped kale to the pot. Drizzle with olive oil, then stir to combine. Season with salt (I added ¼ teaspoon) and pepper, to taste.
- To assemble the salad: Drain the excess liquid from the pickled onions, then add the onions to the pot of farro and kale. Add the roasted sweet potatoes and squeeze an entire lemon’s worth of juice into the pot. Stir to combine and season generously with salt and pepper, to taste. Divide the salad into individual bowls and top each one with mint leaves, chopped hazelnuts and crumbled cheese.
Notes
Recipe courtesy of Blue Apron.
Make it dairy free/vegan: Skip the cheese. Vegans, use either sugar or maple syrup for the pickled onions.
Make it gluten free: I think ¾ cup cooked wild rice or wild rice blend would be a great substitute for the farro.
Make it nut free: Substitute toasted pepitas for the hazelnuts.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This post was created in partnership with Blue Apron and I received compensation for my participation. Opinions are my own, always. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who support C+K!
Delicious! Wasn’t as much prep as I was anticipating and plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Sumac is my new favorite spice!
Wonderful to hear, Jen! Thank you for your review.
This was delicious!! Didn’t have hazelnuts, so I used pecans. And white wine vinegar in lieu of red wine vinegar. My fiancé loved this too. Will definitely make again!
I love this salad!! It lasted me three lunches this week and each time I was in heaven. The first time I forgot to sprinkle on the mint and didn’t realise until I was sharing the recipe with my mum. I remembered to add it in the next two times and enjoyed how it increased the depth of flavour.
With a dairy sensitivity I left out the feta, and I sprinkled on a couple of toasted walnuts instead of hazelnuts. I will totally be making this again this month. It’s worth all the prep! (I did everything but roast the potatoes the day before.) I’m so glad you love salads as much as I do!
This warm salad was so complex in flavor. We loved it. Sometimes I have to make substitutions cause I don’t have or can’t find the required ingredient. This time I subbed za’atar for sumac, Cotija for feta and mint chutney for mint leaves. The quick pickled onions were easy and surprising. Looking forward to making them again!
This is delicious! I made this and added fresh fava beans which are in season right now. I also subbed arugula for the kale. I used Zahtar in place of sumac because that is what I had.
Thanks for the gorgeous recipe. I made the salad tonight. I think I didn’t put enough honey (as a sugar substitute) in the pot of onions. As a result, I think my salad probably needed a little bit more sweetness. I may drizzle some honey (or maple syrup) over it the next time around. But I do love the mix of the different ingredients. I decided to use baby kale and a mix of different shopped green leafy vegetables in lieu of Tuscan kale (all my nearby grocery stores seemed to be out of the latter).
I made this for dinner last night with added red bell pepper to the sweet potatoes when roasting. Used zattar As I had no sumac but pretty much left everything the same With the exception of a little extra lemon dressing on the top that I had left over from one of your salad recipes. So good
A really good salad that is hearty enough to be a meal. We had some leftover ricotta salata that I had bought for pasta Alla Norma that I did not want to go to waste so I used it with this recipe. (I’ve been making that pasta dish for years from a family recipe so I did not make your version, Kate. I did use your idea of roasting the eggplant in the oven instead of frying it how I always did in the past. roasting is much easier to clean up and doesn’t make the mess that frying does.)
This salad is really easy and will definitely be something that we will make again. I still do not have any sumac so, instead, I used zaatar which has sumac in it. Also, I could not find any lacinito so I used baby kale and it was fine. I had just about resigned myself to the fact that I was going to need to use pepitas in this because I was having a hard time finding hazelnuts at the stores I usually go to. They’re easy to find around Thanksgiving but can be hard to find at other times. The last store I went to had them and after eating the salad I thought it was worth the effort to find the hazelnuts. I wish that I had made more of the pickled onion. It was so good. I can’t wait to make this for my daughter, that is a vegan, when she is home from school this summer (without the ricotta salata and using maple syrup or agave for the onions).
I appreciate your detail, Ken! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
So good! We had a rainy Spring day here in CO, so this was perfect. Accidentally, I had used the last of the hazelnuts in another recipe, so we subbed walnuts and it worked out fine.
Thank you for taking the time to review, Sarah!
This salad is a vegetarian masterpiece-beautiful when plated and just as delicious! YUM!
I’m excited you enjoyed it, Anne! I appreciate your review.
This looks so good. I am confused about type of farro to use. I am interested in the nutritional value of using farro. So I looked for whole farro—not pearled or semi-pearled. But it is hard to find. What brand have you found to use? I use your recipes and trust your judgement.
Thanks
Hi Gay, Bob’s Red Mill has some I believe is available at most grocery stores in the US.
I made this tonight and it was super yummy. I omitted the onions, and added sun dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives. Honestly, it’s an easy recipe to tweak to your liking. The mint is so aromatic and really elevates the dish. I am already looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!
That’s great to hear, Raquel!
So delicious and beautiful. Next time I will double, poosibly truple, the recipe! Thank you for sharing.
We really enjoyed this! I subbed the kale with chard and beet greens from our garden, the feta with haloumi, and the hazelnuts with walnuts since that is what was on hand. So filling! Great combination of flavors!!
Great to hear, Joanne!
I bought sumac for the first time for this… I only had curly kale on hand and it was so voluminous! The lacinato would be nice, because it doesn’t have the volume. I tried the kale and onion mixture on top of the roasted sweet potato and tossed it so that the kale cooked/wilted a little and that helped. Thank you – this will be a regular.
You’re welcome, Rebecca!