This Kale Farro Salad with Almonds and Pomegranate is one of my all-time favorite vegan salads. Think of this like a wintery Kale Tabbouleh Salad. It’s loaded up with chopped kale, parsley and farro. Pomegranate seeds replace out-of-season tomatoes here and toasted almonds give this a nice crunch! The best part? It can be made ahead! Great for mid-week lunches.
Leap into the boundless and make it your home. ~Yang Zho
This Kale and Farro Salad (aka Kale Tabbouleh Salad) is bright, cheery and festive, perfect for make-ahead lunches. It’s vegan, healthy, and full of delicious flavor. It’s made with chopped kale, parsley, farro, pomegranate seeds and toasted almonds all tossed in a light lemony dressing.
The color of the salad alone will bring a smile to your face.
What I love about this Kale and Farro Salad is how easy it is to throw together, especially if you cook the farro ahead of time!
It starts with chopping the Lacinato Kale. Lacinato is an heirloom variety of kale, dark in color and a little less bitter than curly kale. It is sometimes called Tuscan kale, black kale or cavolo nero.
Then you’ll massage it until it is tender.
Add the remaining ingredients and just toss.
These days, kale is available year-round but its true season is in mid-winter through the beginning of spring when it’s at its peak and tastes best. This is because a light frost is key in sweetening its flavor.
For faster assembly, feel free to buy pre-seeded pomegranate seeds, but if unavailable you can always purchase a whole pomegranate.
How To seed a Pomegranate:
- The easiest way to seed a pomegranate without creating a huge mess is to score the outer skin of the pomegranate in vertical wedges with a sharp knife (like sections of an orange only bigger).
- Submerge the entire pomegranate in a bowl of cold water.
- Start peeling the skin off and pulling it all apart -underwater.
- The seeds will fall to the bottom of the bowl and skins will float.
- Just remove the skins and drain.
Stir in the dressing ingredients and you are good to go.
This salad will last a good 3-4 days in the fridge!
And there you have it- Kale and Farro Salad (aka Kale Tabouli!) with Pomegranates and Almonds in a simple lemony dressing.
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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Kale and Farro Salad with Almonds & Pomegranate
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6-8
- Category: salad, vegan salad
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Description
This Kale and Farro Salad is one of my all-time favorite vegan salads. Think of it like a Winter Tabouli Salad. It’s loaded up with chopped kale and parsley and instead of bulgar, hearty farro is added to the mix. Pomegranate seeds replace out-of-season tomatoes here and toasted almonds give this a nice crunch! The best part? It can be made ahead!
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked farro (or sub wheat berries, bulgar wheat, quinoa, or other grain)
- 1 bunch lacinato kale ( 8-10 ounces) finely chopped, about 4–5 cups.
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, very finely chopped ( tender stems, OK) about 1-2 cups
- 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup pomegrante seeds
- 1/2 cup – 1 cup toasted almonds, chopped, slivered, or sliced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice, more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Optional Garnish: Avocado slices for extra richness
Instructions
- Start farro to cook on the stove ( 1/2 cup dry). Place in a pot of salted water, bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, simmer gently until tender, 30-40 minutes. Drain.
- Chop kale finely and place in a large bowl. Add oil, salt, garlic and lemon zest. Massage the kale with clean hands until kale becomes tenderized, 4-5 minutes.
- Add parsley, onion, pomegranate, almonds and farro. Toss to combine and add lemon juice and allspice and cinnamon.
- Mix and taste, adding more salt, allspice and lemon to your taste. If making ahead, make sure to re-taste right before serving- the farro will soak up much of the salt and lemon, so usually I’ll add more.
- For extra richness, right before serving, add slices of avocado if you like.
Notes
Updated recipe on 12/ 2019. The original recipe used 2 cups of cooked farro.
This will keep 2-3 days in the fridge.
Sometimes I’ll add other herbs to this as well – cilantro and/or mint. Tasty!
Keywords: farro kale salad, kale Farro Salad, kale tabouleh, winter tabbouleh, kale tabbouleh, kale salad with pomegranate, farro kale salad, holiday salad,
Loved it! I used finely chopped green onion instead of red and it still came out great! This is the first salad I’ve had that is good as leftovers.
★★★★★
This is amazing! The cinnamon and allspice give it a really great twist! I had to substitute pecans for the almonds and some cherry tomatoes for the pomegranate but still delicious
★★★★★
Made this with bulgar wheat for a family BBQ last weekend. My brother in-law said he’d be happy to pay good money for such a great salad if he was served this in a restaurant. 😍
★★★★★
Nice! Love it!
This is delicious! My grocery store didn’t have pomegranates so I used dried goji berries and blueberries. I also added a splash of balsamic vinegar because my parsley was kind of bitter.
★★★★★
This is so so so so yummy!!!!
★★★★★
Awwww thanks so much Joelle. Love and miss you. Xoxo
This looks so good. I just made your kale quinoa salad with apples and chickpeas so this is going to be my next salad. Question, can I use my food processor for the kale, parsley and red onion? Wasn’t sure.
Thanks
Hi That is a great question- I have never tried it! Let us know what you think if you do try it in there!
Excellent! And now I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow, too! (I used cinnamon and cloves, since I didn’t have allspice)
★★★★★
So happy you like it!
I made this for yesterday’s lunch the night before. I had an open bag of Freekeh and beautiful rainbow chard, stems and all, so I used those. I also used walnuts instead of almonds. It was great and the chard really did stand up to the dressing for 16 hours+, I was thinking that next time I would try juice from a mandarin or blood orange instead of the lemon. I do not use All spice often and was surprised that I had ground all spice in my cabinet. It did give it an interesting flavor.
★★★★
Glad you enjoyed this Janet!
I made this today. Skipped the cinnamon/all spice. Added green onion. So delicious! bought the pomegranet seed from Trader Joes.
★★★★★
I just made this salad for the first time and I love it. What a wonderful variation on my usual kale salad and tabouli. Delicious! I am not a fan of raw onion and so I omitted that and it’s still quite tasty. I might add some diced apples for the left over salad but it’s great just as is! Thank you!
★★★★★
Glad you made it your own Cindy!
I keep trying but I have not joined the kale salad band wagon. I love all other greens and was thinking this would work with chard. My farmers market still has beautiful rainbow chard in January. What are your thoughts?
Give it a try! I’m not sure it will hold up as well, and may be a bit tangier??? What if you mixed with another green?
Hi Sylvia, this recipe looks so delicious but I’m struggling to find farro in South Africa. Is there an alternative grain that you think I could use?
Yes, check the recipe- feel free to use quinoa, bulgar, whole wheat or rye berries, or any other whole grain!
Added diced bosc pear and 1/4 c gorgonzola cheese. Mmmm…
★★★★★
This turned out great. Love the addition of allspice, very tasty! Leftovers were good as well- will definitely make this again!
★★★★★
When do you use the apple cider vinegar referred to in the comments?
Hi Sue, I updated the recipe and removed the vinegar!
Can you use regular kale in this recipe?
Yes, just make sure to massage well!
Do you have the original recipe with allspice ?
Hi Tara! Haha you caught the recipe, in the middle of an update. Sorry about that! Start with 1/2 teaspoon, add more to taste!
Beautiful salad!
I’ve had this recipe marked since I found it on Tastespotting and I finally got a chance to make it tonight… so fabulous! I love farro and the seasonings you used and this was wonderful. Thank you! (And I’ll be coming back when I get to pantry reorganization on my to-do list 🙂 Thanks for the great ideas!)
I am glad to hear it turned out!
perfect!
★★★★★
Came across this on tastepsotting… I’m feeling isnpired to clean out my panty, closet but also to make this salad. Thanks!
I love reading your writing – I love the idea of lighter – we do this twice each year and it makes me feel so good. Good job Sylvia!
Sylvia-
Your blog is just stunning! You inspire me by fresh ideas and writing that is from the heart.
Happy New Year.
Kirsten