Tri Colour Pepper Farro Salad

 Where do you find your food inspiration from?  Sometimes all it takes is a good sale to help me decide what ingredients I want to use. I am that lady who scours the reduced produce shelf or anything marked down for clearance. I am amazed at the perfectly good produce that grocery stores will put on clearance.

 I saw these colourful peppers for $1.50 a package (not even on clearance!) the other day and that was the beginning of this dish.  My ongoing quest to use items from my cupboardcontinues and so farro became the grain of choice.

 Farro is an ancient grain that has a satisfying chewy texture to it that makes it one of my favourites.  If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend you do.  Sometimes packaged as spelt it is usually in the aisle with other grains or easily found in speciality stores like Vincenzos or Whole Foods.

This salad also incorporates oven dried tomatoes.  These little jewels are like candy after roasting in the oven.  It's hard not to eat them right off the hot pan out of the oven!  The smokey caramelised flavour of the tomatoes plays off the fresh crunch of the peppers, balanced with the acidity of the lemon vinaigrette.



  

 I made this salad one evening and then packaged it into lunch containers for the rest of the week.  It tasted great even 3 days later and was something quick to grab out of the fridge on my way out the door to work in the morning.

Tri Colour Pepper Farro Salad
1 cup farro
1 each red, yellow, orange pepper chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Dressing
zest of one lemon
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 shallot minced (approx 1/4cup)
5 Tbsp olive oil (divided)
salt
pepper
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp fresh chives

Preheat oven to 250degrees.  Add farro to 3 cups of boiling water and cook approximately 30min.  Slice tomatoes in half and sprinkle with salt.  Rub 1Tbsp olive oil on baking sheet.  Drizzle 1Tbsp of olive oil over tomatoes on sheet.  Put in oven and bake approximately 30 min until shrivelled. 

To make dressing: in a small jar or bowl mix together zest and juice of lemon, vinegar, 3 Tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard and shallot. 

Drain farro and top with dressing.  Toss with chopped peppers and roasted tomatoes.  Top with fresh chives.  Enjoy!