Farro Salad with Kale and Butternut Squash

4.95 from 34 votes
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Make this farro salad with kale and butternut squash for a healthy, delicious dinner that’s made with whole grains and tons of veggies.

This yummy kale salad is nutrient-packed and vegetarian and one of the best high-protein vegetarian meals out there.

Farro salad in a bowl.
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Farro Salad with Kale and Butternut Squash

Get ready for the fall kale salad of your dreams ladies and gents. This hubba hubba massaged kale salad is made with roasted butternut squash, roasted chickpeas, yummy farro, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, and all of the goat cheese you could ever imagine.

why you’ll love this farro salad

  • It’s a whole meal, not just a salad.
  • The flavors are amazing.
  • You get so many textures in one salad.
  • This farro salad is packed with nutrients.
Roasted butternut squash and chickpeas in a bowl.
  • farro: whole grain, vegan, and high-fiber
  • pumpkin seeds: great texture and healthy fats
  • dried cherries: whole food, no-added-sugar, all-natural sweetness
  • goat cheese: super creamy and healthy fats
  • butternut squash: creamy, flavorful, and a great fall vegetable.

If you’d like to keep this meal vegan, no worries! You can substitute the goat cheese for vegan cheese or no cheese at all. Easy peasy.

massaging kale in hands

how to

massage kale

Never skip the step of massaging your kale before tossing it in this farro salad. Trust us.

How to Roast Butternut Squash

Let’s chat about all things butternut squash. Butternut squash is a super intimidating vegetable (actually fruit!). Since it has seeds, it’s actually considered a fruit (WHATTT?). It’s just so large and hard and difficult to cut. So? What does that mean for you? No fear! We actually have an excellent, in-depth guide that teaches you…

  • how to cut butternut squash
  • how to cook butternut squash

What I’m trying to say is, if you are also intimidated by butternut squash like I once was, it’s not so bad. You just need to give it a little extra TLC in order to make it scrumptious and perfect for this kale salad.

Farrow salad in a big bowl.

Kale Salad Dressing

The last thing you need for this vegetarian meal is an easy kale salad dressing! Since there are already so many amazing parts of this salad, we wanted to keep things pretty simple.

  • olive oil
  • red onion
  • garlic
  • dijon
  • maple syrup
  • balsamic vinegar
  • lemon

If you would like to mix things up and make a different dressing, check out all of our dressings. We have lots of different options.

Butternut squash on pan.

how to

roast butternut squash

Dig into how to prepare butternut squash for many different recipes.

FAQ

What is farro salad made of?

This farro salad is made with massaged kale, butternut squash, pepitas, goat cheese, and a balsamic dressing.

Can you eat farro cold?

Yes, you can eat farro cold or warm.

Do you peel butternut squash before you cook it?

For this recipe, we peel the butternut squash before we cook it. However, you can cook butternut squash with the skin on.

What else can I add to this salad?

This salad would be delicious with other roasted vegetables like sweet potato, asparagus, green beans, or carrots. Feel free to get creative and add whatever ingredients you’d like.

Storage

Store this salad in an air-tight container for up to 7 days. Generally, we would not recommend dressing the salad before storing it in the refrigerator, but his salad keeps well with the dressing.

Pouring dressing over the farro salad.
Stirring the kale and butternut squash salad.
4.95 from 34 votes

Farro Salad with Kale and Butternut Squash

This farro salad is tossed with butternut squash, pepitas, goat cheese, and perfectly massaged kale.
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
Total: 50 minutes
Servings: 6
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Ingredients 

Butternut Squash + Garbanzo Beans

  • 1 large butternut squash, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces (~4 cups)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, strained and rinsed

Farro 

  • 1 cup farro, rinsed
  • 2 cups broth or water

Dressing

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red onion, diced
  • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
  • 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon maple syrup
  • 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Salad

  • 4 cups chopped kale, deboned
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup dried cherries
  • 1/4 cup red onion, diced
  • 1/4 cup pepitas
  • 1/2 cup goat cheese crumbles

Instructions 

Squash + Garbanzo Beans

  • Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Peel and chop your butternut squash using this tutorial.
    Cleaning out butternut squash.
  • Then, place chopped squash on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss. Place in the oven and bake at 375ºF for 20 minutes.
    Butternut squash on pan.
  • Remove from oven and add garbanzo beans to the pan. Toss to make sure garbanzo beans are coated with olive oil and spices.
  • Place back in the oven at 375ºF and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Once cooked, remove from oven and set aside.

Farro

  • While squash and beans are baking, bring broth to a boil over high heat and then add farro to the broth.
  • Lower heat to low and cover. Let farro simmer for 20-30 minutes or until farro has expanded and become al dente.
  • Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and set aside.

Dressing

  • Heat a medium skillet over medium/high heat. Add olive oil.
  • When olive oil is fragrant add onion and garlic. Let saute in olive oil for 1-2 minutes.
  • Turn heat to low heat and let olive oil, garlic, and onion simmer for 10-15 minutes. Then remove from heat and let cool.
  • Add all ingredients for the dressing into a mason jar, close tightly, and shake until all ingredients are combined.

Salad

  • Add chopped kale to a large mixing bowl and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Massage kale with your hands for 2-4 minutes to break down the kale until it becomes tender.
  • Prepare salad by adding the rest of the salad ingredients to the kale along with the butternut squash mixture and farro.
  • Top with salad dressing, toss, and enjoy!
    Farro salad in a bowl.

Watch It

Nutrition

Calories: 468 kcal, Carbohydrates: 64 g, Protein: 16 g, Fat: 18 g, Fiber: 11 g, Sugar: 16 g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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About Lee Funke

Lee is the founder of Fit Foodie Finds and based in Minneapolis, MN. She started this website in 2010 as a way to share her love for real food and wellness. The internet has changed so much since then and so has Fit Foodie Finds. Today we're a female-run recipe website publishing hundreds of tried and true recipes developed and tested by our team.

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Jane
Jane
January 10, 2024 9:18 pm

5 stars
Fantastic salad to make for lunches for the week. Nice and filling. Didn’t feel like taking the time to heat the ingredients for the dressing. I just threw all the ingredients for dressing in a blender and it was still wonderful (I did double the amounts of dressing ingredients b/c it didn’t seem like I would have enough dressing otherwise for the amount of kale). Will definitely be making this again and again.

eliza
eliza
June 21, 2022 12:30 am
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
sooooo good, the dressing is *chefs kiss.*
Instead of kale I used spinach and it was just as great. Also added fresh chopped basil and substituted goat cheese if you’d like to try! If not the goat cheese, I highly recommend at least adding the basil. Also, cooked some steak making sure to marinade it at least 30 minutes prior and absolute flavor bomb every bite. My boyfriend is obsessed!

Last edited 2 years ago by eliza
Emily Richter
June 21, 2022 1:32 pm
Reply to  eliza

Oh wow, we’re blushing! Thanks so much for this review Eliza <3

Kristin
Kristin
October 3, 2021 5:25 am
Recipe Rating :
     

4 stars
Love the idea of this salad but I wanted to point out that you have farro listed as being gluten free and it is not gluten free, it does contain wheat.
This could be very dangerous to someone with an allergy or Celiac.

Leah
Leah
November 8, 2021 10:12 am
Reply to  Lee Funke

Thanks for updating this! I have celiac and I LOVE this recipe. I use quinoa (which is GF) instead of farro and the recipe works great with that substitution.

Gabriella
Gabriella
March 2, 2021 1:13 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
Literally the best salad of any kind I have ever had!
I make the dressing and keep it on the side for leftovers so the kale doesn’t get soggy.
Recipe has a bit of components and take some patience but its SO worth it. I crave this salad almost everyday and never get tired of it. The dressing and goat cheese are game changers!

Dee
Dee
February 15, 2021 12:36 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
Made as is – huge crowd pleasure. Made my husband into a kale lover.

Julie
Julie
February 6, 2021 1:45 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
Excellent! I subbed the dried fruit for pear and pomegranate and also used toasted butternut squash seeds. Excellent flavor and texture! Thank you!

Shontell Booth
Shontell Booth
December 30, 2020 12:32 am

Farro is not gluten free and it shouldn’t say it is in the recipe 🤨

42792AEF-795D-4EA6-A933-553AAAAC1FE0.jpeg
Teja
December 22, 2020 1:03 am
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
This was a great recipe! I loved the unique salad dressing.

Some modifications I had to make were:
Skip the chickpeas, pepitas and dried cherries
Add toasted pecans and dried cranberries

It was delicious and good as a meal because of the farro I think.

Thank you!

Alyssa Fusco
November 28, 2020 9:48 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
This was a hit at Thanksgiving!! Loved it so much.

Tawny
Tawny
November 27, 2020 1:45 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

5 stars
This was so yummy!