Farro Salad with Butternut Squash, Bacon and Cranberries Recipe - Rachel Cooks® (2024)

This hearty salad is fall in a bowl! You’ll love this farro salad with butternut squash, kale, and bacon, and a homemade apple cider dressing.

Why You’ll Love This Farro Salad

This farro salad with butternut squash is pretty much the perfect taste of fall with sweet squash, salty bacon, chewy dried cranberries, and flavorful feta. Bright green baby kale makes you feel extra good about yourself, eating all those healthy greens. And farro – oh, how I love farro. Chewy and delightful, the farro will keep you full for hours.

The homemade dressing also is infused with fall-inspired flavors. Warm cinnamon, maple syrup, and sweet apple cider tie this salad together perfectly.

Make Ahead Ideas

If you start from scratch, this salad looks like it’s a time-consuming process. However, if you do a little meal prep, and have most of the components ready to go, the salad is a breeze to pull together.

Roast the squash. I like to buy a large squash, peel and cube it, and roast it all at the same time. It’s great on its own as a side dish and goes perfectly in salads, grain bowls, meal bowls, etc.

Cook the farro. To save time, cook the whole bag of farro at once. Follow the package instructions. One cup of uncooked farro will yield about 3 cups cooked. Keep the cooked farro in portion-sized freezer bags until you’re ready to use it. Cooked farro thaws very quickly, making it convenient to use in salads and bowls.

Cook the bacon. Another time-saver is to cook the whole package of bacon even if you aren’t planning on eating it all. Try oven baked bacon. You can do the whole package at once; there’s no flipping and no mess on the stove. It’s pretty much the only way I cook bacon now. Cooked bacon can be refrigerated or frozen, and it thaws very quickly as well.

Make This Farro Salad Your Own

• Try a different dressing. A white wine vinaigrette is easy to make and goes well with this salad. A purchased salad dressing is fine, too.
• Use a different green. If you prefer spinach or another hearty green, go for it. Instead of baby kale, curly kale or lacinato kale can be subbed in. Cut it into small strips.
• Make it vegetarian. It’s easy to do, simply omit the bacon. The salad has plenty going for it and tastes great either way.
• Try different vegetables. Instead of butternut squash, try roasted beets, roasted turnips, roasted carrots, or roasted sweet potatoes. A combination is delicious, too.