a summer evening's goodness

we don't eat a whole lot of meat at our house, let alone have a grill, so i've been hunting around for some new summer recipes that don't completely turn the kitchen into a sauna. i've especially been looking for ones that use whole grains since they're so healthy and hearty too. i came across this recipe for quinoa vegetable salad on allrecipes.com but i made just a few small tweaks including substituting farro for the quinoa, and leaving out the corn and carrots. paired with a tall glass of ice cold tea made from scratch with fresh mint from our balcony garden, it filled us up and was o so very good! i was a bit surprised by the cilantro-mint-balsamic vinegar combination but they really worked well together and it is indeed a recipe worth sharing!

here is the recipe, with my tweaks added in, more or less since i don't tend to follow standard measurements much:

1 teaspoon canola oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 red onion, diced
water (app. 3-5 cups)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound farro

1/2 red onion, diced
1 large tomato diced or bunch of grape tomatoes quartered
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 cucumber, sliced and quartered

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons mint, rough chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, rough chopped
1 teaspoon natural sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Directions:

1. soak farro in cold water for approximately 25 minutes and drain.
2. heat the canola oil in a stockpot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. cook and stir the garlic and the first half of the onion in the hot oil until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. pour in the water, kosher salt, and black pepper and bring to a boil; stir the farro into the mixture, reduce heat to medium (uncovered) and let simmer for 20-25 minutes. Drain any remaining water from the farro with a mesh strainer and transfer to a large mixing bowl. refrigerate until cold.
3. stir the tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, and remaining red onion into the chilled farro. Season with cilantro, mint, sea salt, and black pepper. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad; gently stir until evenly mixed.
   

ENJOY!