Summer is the season of eating fresh from the garden and simply assembling ingredients, rather than cooking. This hearty, grainy salad is a great example of that: it’s loaded with tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs, the farro and chickpeas bring the substance and it gets its brightness from the lemon, olives and feta. I love to make a batch of this at the beginning of the week so it’s available for quick lunches and to eat alongside simple chicken, fish or pork chops for dinner.

The trick here is to plan ahead a bit with the farro. Farro is a whole grain that’s nutty, a little chewy and perfect for salads like this. Soaking grains before cooking makes them more digestible (breaking down the phytic acid) and also reduces the cooking time. That means you can soak the farro overnight, boil it for about 15 minutes and you’ll have a large batch ready to go.

Feel free to get creative with the flavor combinations here – I’d love a version with white beans, sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese. Or tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, arugula and prosciutto. There are endless possibilities – and isn’t that the fun of it all?

Mediterranean Inspired Farro Salad

Gather this:

• 1 cup farro, soaked overnight (or for several hours) in a jar with filtered water and a splash of apple cider vinegar
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup chopped cucumber
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• 3/4 cup crumbled feta
• 3/4 cup chopped olives (preferably green and/or kalamata)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• handful of fresh herbs, chopped (I love parsley, dill and basil for this)
• salt and pepper to taste

Do this:

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add 1 tsp of salt. Drain and rinse the farro and then add it to the boiling water. Cook until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

When the farro is around room temperature, add it to a large bowl with the rest of the ingredients — seasoning to taste. The amount of salt needed will depend on how salty your feta and olives are. Fold ingredients together and refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving. Will last several days in the fridge!