This post was created in partnership with Oregon Fruit. All opinions are our own. Need a simple salad recipe that maximizes flavor and minimizes headaches? Try this hearty autumn salad with farro, apples and cherries! This grain salad is full of contrasts: the crisp crunch of the apple against the chewy farro, and the zing of the dressing against the savory feta cheese. You don’t always find cherries in an autumn recipe, but use canned or dried cherries and it’s the perfect way to infuse sweet tart flavor. Ready to get started?
How to make autumn salad
This autumn salad with tart cherries takes about 25 minutes to put together. But it’s a pretty simple concept. Here’s what to do:
Cook the farro. Boil up a pot of farro (or use the Instant Pot). Make sure to use pearled farro for this recipe, which ensures the quick cooking time. Add apple, baby arugula, cherries and feta. Make sure to use baby arugula, which has a feathery texture (standard arugula is much too strong). Can’t find canned tart cherries? Use dried instead! Add the dressing. Cover the entire autumn salad in a tart cherry vinaigrette.
With the red and the green, it’s visually stunning and it tastes incredible: tangy, tart, sweet, and savory all at once. Another great thing is that it can be eaten year round since many of these ingredients are available throughout the year. However, it’s a perfect fall salad or winter salad. Tip: If you like this recipe, you also might enjoy our Farro with Mushrooms & Parmesan! It turns farro into a filling main dish or bowl meal.
For the tart cherries: use canned or dried
Typically we don’t think of using fruit in cans. However, we’ve been introduced to Oregon Fruit canned fruit, which we used for this recipe. Canned fruit is an easy way to incorporate the flavor and nutrients of fresh fruit; it’s available nationwide and year round. Oregon Fruit is packed in the USA during the summer for maximum ripeness and flavor. Some other great features: it’s non-GMO and there’s no High Fructose Corn Syrup or BPA in the cans. Here we’ve used canned tart cherries, which bring a sweet-tart flair to the salad. I’m a huge fan of tart flavor (my favorite drinks: margaritas or sour beer), so this one hits it out of the park for me. Can’t find canned tart cherries? Substitute dried tart cherries instead.
How to serve this autumn salad
Versatility is another thing we love about this recipe. You can use it as a side dish at a holiday meal; it would look lovely piled onto a large a platter. Or, turn it into a main dish as a grain bowl! Simply mound a larger quantity into a bowl and serve it with avocado toast or crackers as a filling lunch or weeknight meal. It can be served warm, room temperature, or cold, which makes it endlessly versatile. And finding recipes that work for many occasions is part of that pretty simple approach to the kitchen! We hope you’ll find this autumn salad hits all those elements for you–an uncomplicated concept for many occasions that looks pretty and tastes pretty delicious.
This autumn salad recipe is…
Vegetarian and naturally sweet. For gluten-free, substitute quinoa.
Looking for recipes with whole grains?
Eating whole grains is more than just multigrain bread! In addition to this autumn salad, here are a few of our favorite recipes with grains: 5 from 1 review
Roasted Fall Vegetable Grain Bowl Greek Sofrito Quinoa Bowl Mediterranean Quinoa Stuffed Peppers Stress Reducing Avocado & Quinoa Nourish Bowl Spinach Artichoke Red Rice Casserole Healthy Superfood Salad Best Salad Recipes
