Farro with Roasted Rutabaga, Hard Goat Cheese, Hazelnuts, Red Grapes and Arugula

Diane Morgan’s Farro Salad

  • Diane Morgan’s Farro Salad
  • Diane Morgan’s Farro Salad
  • Diane Morgan’s Farro Salad
  • Diane Morgan’s Farro Salad
  • Diane Morgan’s Farro Salad

NOTES

Farro is a chewy grain with excellent texture for salads. If you are gluten-free, substitute Spelt Berries. This is a great Winter salad, and stays fresh in the fridge for a day or two, as long as the arugula is not mixed in. Diane didn’t specify which type of goat cheese she uses in this recipe, but I went for a robust, hard goat cheese. I walked into Wedge, a really sweet cheese shop in Crown Heights, and asked them what they had by way of a hard goat’s milk cheese. They gave me a Midnight Moon by Cypress Grove creamery, that was tangy and dense with a slight presence of protein crystals. Try it. 

INSTRUCTIONS

This is the perfect salad with which to close the Winter season, while the farmers’ market is still selling, almost exclusively, root vegetables. I was recently giftedDiane Morgan‘s excellent vegetable-based encyclopedic cookbook, Roots. The photographs are as elegant as the recipes. Each plate looks like a 17th century still-life painting, with shadowy backgrounds and an ethereal light defining each perfect, vegetable specimen. The book focuses, in alphabetical order, on 29 vegetables — Andean Tubers all the way to Yucca. The recipes are accessible; they run the gamut from the rich, dairy and meat based meals (a creamy salsify oyster stew), to lighter, vegetarian options, one of which I chose for today. I added the grapes to the recipe;  the dish needed a pop of color to make a pleasing photo, and the sweetness of the fruit compliments the maple-glazed rutabaga perfectly. Alternately, this salad would be great with tiny champagne grapes, if you can find them.

Filmmaker, world traveller, and our dear friend, Ben Russell, stopped by for lunch, before we all headed uptown to the Museum of Modern Art to attend the New York premiere of his film, A Spell To Ward Off Darkness (co-directed by Ben Rivers). The film was included in the New Directors, New Films series, and will, strangely, make you reconsider both Black Metal as a musical genre, and the idea of communal living. We shared a bottle of prosecco, heaps of food, and toyed with the idea of starting a commune of our own in Los Angeles.

We are not yet accepting applications, but stay tuned.

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

MODERATE

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SERVES

4

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PREP TIME

40 MINS

Salad

  • 1.5 
    lb. 
    Rutabaga, ends trimmed, peeled and cut into 3/4” pieces
  • 7 
    tbs 
    extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 
    tbs 
    dark maple syrup
  •  
     
    pinch of sea salt
  •  
     
    Freshly ground pepper
  • 1 1/2 
     
    cups farro
  • 4 
    oz. 
    crumbled hard goat cheese
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    raw hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
  • 4 
    cups 
    lightly packed baby arugula
  • 1 
    cup 
    organic red grapes or champagne grapes

Dressing

  • 2 
    tsp 
    red wine or sherry vinegar, plus more for drizzling
  • 1/4 
    tsp 
    granulated sugar
  • 2 
    tbs 
    minced shallot
  • 1 
     
    large garlic clove, minced

INSTRUCTIONS

This is the perfect salad with which to close the Winter season, while the farmers’ market is still selling, almost exclusively, root vegetables. I was recently giftedDiane Morgan‘s excellent vegetable-based encyclopedic cookbook, Roots. The photographs are as elegant as the recipes. Each plate looks like a 17th century still-life painting, with shadowy backgrounds and an ethereal light defining each perfect, vegetable specimen. The book focuses, in alphabetical order, on 29 vegetables — Andean Tubers all the way to Yucca. The recipes are accessible; they run the gamut from the rich, dairy and meat based meals (a creamy salsify oyster stew), to lighter, vegetarian options, one of which I chose for today. I added the grapes to the recipe;  the dish needed a pop of color to make a pleasing photo, and the sweetness of the fruit compliments the maple-glazed rutabaga perfectly. Alternately, this salad would be great with tiny champagne grapes, if you can find them.

Filmmaker, world traveller, and our dear friend, Ben Russell, stopped by for lunch, before we all headed uptown to the Museum of Modern Art to attend the New York premiere of his film, A Spell To Ward Off Darkness (co-directed by Ben Rivers). The film was included in the New Directors, New Films series, and will, strangely, make you reconsider both Black Metal as a musical genre, and the idea of communal living. We shared a bottle of prosecco, heaps of food, and toyed with the idea of starting a commune of our own in Los Angeles.

We are not yet accepting applications, but stay tuned.

This is the perfect salad with which to close the Winter season, while the farmers’ market is still selling, almost exclusively, root vegetables. I was recently giftedDiane Morgan‘s excellent vegetable-based encyclopedic cookbook, Roots. The photographs are as elegant as the recipes. Each plate looks like a 17th century still-life painting, with shadowy backgrounds and an ethereal light defining each perfect, vegetable specimen. The book focuses, in alphabetical order, on 29 vegetables — Andean Tubers all the way to Yucca. The recipes are accessible; they run the gamut from the rich, dairy and meat based meals (a creamy salsify oyster stew), to lighter, vegetarian options, one of which I chose for today. I added the grapes to the recipe;  the dish needed a pop of color to make a pleasing photo, and the sweetness of the fruit compliments the maple-glazed rutabaga perfectly. Alternately, this salad would be great with tiny champagne grapes, if you can find them.

Filmmaker, world traveller, and our dear friend, Ben Russell, stopped by for lunch, before we all headed uptown to the Museum of Modern Art to attend the New York premiere of his film, A Spell To Ward Off Darkness (co-directed by Ben Rivers). The film was included in the New Directors, New Films series, and will, strangely, make you reconsider both Black Metal as a musical genre, and the idea of communal living. We shared a bottle of prosecco, heaps of food, and toyed with the idea of starting a commune of our own in Los Angeles.

We are not yet accepting applications, but stay tuned.