When I recently noticed this salad recipe in the NYT and realized that I had all the ingredients in the house, I just had to make it! It was every bit as delicious as the recipe sounded. We love leeks, garbanzo beans and of course farro. In case you’re not familiar with farro, it’s an ancient variety of wheat and has a somewhat nutty flavor. Nutritionally it’s right up there with quinoa, the super grain. Currants are a type of tiny raisins. They’re often available in the bulk section of the grocery store. In a pinch you can use regular raisins. I cooked the garbanzo beans in my instant pot. Every time I use it I am glad that I no longer buy canned beans. Freshly cooked beans have a much better flavor and also texture. Before the instant pot I often used my slow cooker to cook dried beans. It also works really well but takes a little longer.
This was a rare instance where I just about followed the recipe from start to finish except for the amount of olive oil it called for. I reduced the oil from about one cup total in the original recipe to about a quarter of a cup here. That quarter cup was plenty of olive oil for my taste. The only other thing I changed was to leave out the celery leaves because I had none. If you have some just add them at the end with the farro.
This is a perfect salad for a picnic or potluck since there’s no dairy in it to go sour.
Roasted Leeks, Garbanzo Bean & Farro Salad
- 4 large leeks, washed thoroughly and sliced into thick half moons
- olive oil
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- about 3 to 4 cups cooked garbanzo beans (that would be 2 cans if using canned beans)
- 3 juicy lemons
- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- crushed red chile flakes to taste
- 2 cups dry (uncooked) farro
- 1/2 cup chopped celery leaves
Preheat the oven to 425°.
Toss the leeks with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Spread them out in a single layer on a large baking sheet.
When the oven’s hot, roast the leeks for 20 to 30 minutes.
They should be tender and a little charred and crispy in places.
When the leeks are done roasting put them into a large bowl.
Add the well drained (and rinsed if canned) garbanzo beans, 1/4 cup of lemon juice,
1 teaspoon salt, some chile flakes and 1/4 cup of olive oil.
Stir gently to blend everything and set it aside to marinate while you cook the farro.
Bring a good-sized pot of water to a boil.
Add a little salt and the farro to the water and cook for about 20 minutes.
Taste a few kernels now and then to check for doneness.
When tender, drain the farro well.
Add the grain to the garbanzo mixture along with the currants.
Combine all the ingredients well and taste.
Add a little more lemon juice and/or salt if needed.
This salad can be eaten warm, at room temperature or cold.
🙂
For a complete meal make a little salad to go with it.
This salad keeps extremely well for several days in the refrigerator
and I believe that the flavors actually improve after a day or two.
To freshen it up just add a little more fresh lemon juice!
P.S.: Greer, I really think you’d like this! 😉
in cahoots with muddy boots 
That sounds amazing, Sabine! Farro has become one of my favorite grains. It holds up well and has that nutty bite. I can see making this and having lunch all week! Thanks for sharing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is amazing, Missy! You could probably throw something on the grill to go with it. Farro is definitely a versatile grain!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It looks tasty Sabine … great to take along, especially for this oddball weather all around the U.S. We are about to enter into a week of scorching hot temps and high humidity beginning Saturday. I’l ready for Fall at this rate.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it’s that time of year when we all have been waiting for summer. The temps do seem a little wacky! It was 95 here yesterday! I hope it doesn’t get too bad where you are, Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was thinking your weather might not be scorching hot, but more temperate in the Summer months. My geography ignorance is showing. That is very hot! We are still slated for the 90s this weekend and through next week. I am glad I could leave the A/C off a couple of days, but tomorrow it goes on again. The Poplar fuzz is blowing around and gets pulled into the A/C grille so that’s one less chore to do in hosing it off.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Summers used to be milder here! Not so much any more. It’s not like Michigan but we have plenty of hot spells and it’s getting more humid too. Stay cool Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sure there are more hot spells to come Sabine. On the first day of Spring, the Accuweather meteorologist predicted a very hot and humid Summer for us here in SE Michigan … I hope there won’t be a lot of volatile storms to go along with that. Wasn’t that long ago you had the bad ice storm. You stay cool too Sabine.
LikeLiked by 1 person
[P.S. – Sabine: I apologize for my tardiness in commenting. I am many days behind in Reader thanks to a major computer malfunction at work. On May 20th, our Outlook crashed and we lost our ability to e-mail for about five days, plus lost all our data; we went from Outlook and Word 2010 to Office 365. I’ve spent a great deal of my own time troubleshooting with the I.T. guy and spent most of the long holiday weekend doing yardwork. So now I will try my best to get through a massive amount of blog posts.]
LikeLiked by 1 person
Linda, never worry about being “tardy”! Not on my blog! We all have lives we live, things we have to do and things we love to do. I am sorry for all the computer issues you had to deal with. What a pain! My screen went dark a few weeks ago and Apple couldn’t figure it out over the phone. So I got an appointment the next day luckily and it turned out that I had accidentally hit a key that completely dimmed the monitor. I felt pretty silly, but hey, I’d never had anything like that happen. Take it easy and I’m crossing my fingers that the computer cooperates from now on. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Sabine. I felt badly and spent several hours last night and am still one week behind. Our computer system has been fraught with issues since it crashed in 2010, but this was a doozy too. And … I was not looking forward to being thrown into Office 365 without easing into it first. We’ve had the computer equipment for two years and we are on a hybrid now as we’re not on the Windows 10 laptops yet. Something more fun down the line The loss of data is frustrating as it was my own accounting records which are scanned-in receivables and I like to have them at hand in case clients have issues. It’s not much better now, two weeks after it happened. I am glad it is a short week. Of all my usual park venues, each one has events this Saturday – there is a 5K, something for dogs and their owners, plus other events. Wherever I go, it will be early in the a.m. and hopefully not soggy. Two parks have flooding issues.
Council Point Park has a 5K and then planting of trees, so I’m staying away from there. They decided on the 5K before group restrictions were lifted.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe it should be just a Rest & Relaxation weekend for you, Linda! You certainly deserve it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Sabine. I am looking forward to going through my photos taken last Saturday. It was my third virtual 5K and I went hunting for ducklings so am looking forward to seeing how those shots came out. That will be relaxing in 90-degree weather and after cramming all the yardwork into two days.
LikeLiked by 1 person