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A Simple Roasted Beets and Farro Salad Perfect For A Filling Vegan Meal Prep
Wouldn’t it be nice to make a salad that is filling and satisfying enough for a full meal?
Well, this roasted beets and farro salad is just what you’re looking for.
Save time and energy with this vegan beet salad. Earthy beets and hearty farro turn this healthy vegan salad into a full meal.
The best part?
It will keep great so you can make this veggie packed meal prep salad once and eat it for days. Your lunches will be so much happier.
Instead of making a separate side dish and a grain bowl, combine them. Toss delicious roasted beets, farro, herbs, and a quick dressing together for a quick and incredibly healthy meal. Beets have been shown to improve stamina, so this salad is perfect for your active lifestyle.
What’s in This Beet and Farro Salad?
This super healthy roasted beets salad has just a few simple ingredients.
Cooked farro and roasted beets are mixed with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, chives or scallions, and herbs. There is a lot of room for variation in this salad, so don’t feel discouraged if you don’t have these exact ingredients. More on this later.
Is This Roasted Beets Salad Healthy?
I’m really into beets right now. They have been shown to increase physical and mental performance. So, that is as good as it gets when it comes to health benefits.
In addition to being loaded with vitamins and mineral, beets have two plant compounds that provide many benefits to your body: nitrates and betalain.
The nitrates in beets aren’t the bad sodium nitrates that are added to processed food. These nitrates are converted to nitric oxide in your body. Studies like this one have shown nitric oxide helps increase blood flow and lower blood pressure. Because of this, beets have even been shown to increase athletic performance and brain health.
The other plant compound in beets, betalain, is the pigment that gives beets their beautiful color. This antioxidant may help protect against cancer and reduce inflammation in the body.
You can read more about the health benefits of beets here.
When you add in fiber rich, nutritious, and antioxidant packed farro, this salad is super healthy. It is perfect to eat on a day when you will be exercising.
Tips for Making This Roasted Beets Salad
How-to Buy Beets
Beets are generally available with their leafy tops on or off.
If their tops are still on, inspecting these will be your best bet. It means they were dug up within the past week or so. Look for greens that are perky with no shriveling.
If their tops are removed, look for beets with tight, firm skins. You should not be able to squish them at all.
When buying multiple beets or a bunch, try to get similar sized bulbs. That way they will all take about the same time to cook.
How-to Roast Beets
Beets can either be roasted unpeeled and whole or peeled and cut.
For this recipe, I peeled and cut-up the beets before roasting for quicker cooking. But, you can use either.
- Whole, unpeeled – Results in a more tender, juicy beet. However, this process takes much longer (over 1 hour). Check out this oven roasted beets recipe for how to cook whole roasted beets.
- Cut-up, peeled – Quicker and easier cooking method. Will yield less tender, but sweet beets.
How-to Dress Roasted Beets
Dress the roasted beets with vinegar while they are still warm. This will allow them to soak in the acid and better gain flavor.
You want to do this for all root vegetables and potatoes.
Storing this Roasted Beet Salad
Store this beet salad covered, in the refrigerator. It will last 4-5 days this way. The flavors will even develop some after a few hours.
These OXO glass containers are super nice for meal prep storage. You can store, cover, reheat (if needed), and serve all in one container. And you won’t have to worry about the lid coming off or leaking.
Beet Salad Variations
This beet salad is perfect for experimenting with different ingredients. Think of the beets and farro as your base. Whatever else you add in makes it more nutritious and filling.
Here are some ideas if you’re feeling adventurous.
- Add beet greens – Did you buy beets with greens on them? Don’t toss them. Add them to this salad. Chop up into 1″ or so pieces, sauté with olive oil for about 5 minutes until wilted, and add to the bowl with the beets. You just cranked up the fiber in your meal.
- Top with nuts and/or seeds – Increase the fullness factor by adding almonds, walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, or pepitas.
- Toss in an avocado – Is it every a bad idea to add an avocado to a dish? Chop an avocado and add to the bowl just before serving for a blast of healthy fats.
Beet Salad FAQs
How Long Will This Beet Salad Last?
This roasted beet salad will last 4-5 days, covered in the refrigerator. It is great eaten cold, room temperature or warm.
If I’m eating this for leftovers, I like to just take them out of the refrigerator for 20 or so minutes. This takes some chill away.
What Type of Beets Should I Use?
You can use any type of beets for this salad. Better yet, you can even use a mix of beets. I used gold.
You may see a few different varieties of beets at your grocery store. Most likely you will see the red (they look purple to me) variety. If there is another type of beet, it is probably gold.
Red beets are versatile, earthy, and keep well. These are the beets you probably think of when you hear the word “beets”. If you use these, be aware that their color will rub off and turn some farro purple.
While golden beets are also widely available. They are less sweet than red beets, but also less earthy. Golden beets make for an easier cleanup since they don’t stain everything like red beets do.
To read more about beets, check out this Beets 101 article that is your resource for everything you need to know about buying, cooking, and eating beets.
Do I Need to Peel the Beets?
Beet skins are edible, but bitter. So, you’ll want to peel the skins before cooking.
Is This Beet Salad Vegan?
Yes! This beet salad is vegan, vegetarian, nut-free, and dairy-free.
More Beet Recipes
I can’t get enough beets right now because of their health benefits. Here are more beet recipes to keep your brain and body at peak performance.
- Beet and Berry Smoothie
- Roasted Beet and Avocado Salad
- Grilled Beet Salad with Lemon and Herbs
- Oven Roasted Beets: How to Cook a Batch in the Oven
- Roasted Beet Dip
- Beet and Carrot Slaw with Raisins and Nuts
- Beet Pickled Eggs
- Refrigerator Pickled Beets
Roasted Beets and Farro Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup farro
- 1-1.5 pounds beets (about 3-4 medium), peeled and cut into about 1/2" wedges or chunks
- 1 cup lightly packed herbs such as parsley, cilantro, mint, chives, or a mix, chopped
- 4 tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 5 tbsp. olive oil, divided
- 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/4 cup scallions (about 2 medium), thinly sliced (or chives)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Toss beets with 2 Tbsp. olive oil and 1 tsp. kosher salt on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast 30-35 minutes until tender and browned, tossing halfway through roasting.
- Add farro and about 4 cups water to a medium saucepan. Add a pinch of kosher salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes until farro is tender, but still a little chewy.
- When beets are done roasting, add to a large bowl. Top with vinegar while still warm and toss. Add farro and 1 tsp. salt. Toss to combine. Let sit while you chop greens.
- Add 3 Tbsp. olive oil, herbs, and scallions to bowl. Toss to combine.
- Serve immediately or at room temperature.
Notes
- Instead of red wine vinegar, use apple cider, white wine, or sherry vinegar.
- Use 2 Tbsp. finely diced onions instead of scallions or chives.
- Add finely sliced kale, cabbage, or radicchio to make this salad more green.
Nutrition
Ready to Make This Roasted Beet and Farro Salad?
Cooking all of your meals every day isn’t sustainable in your busy life. To eat healthy every day, one-bowl meals like this one are your best friend.
Cook once, eat multiple times. That is the key.
When I made this recipe, it was perfect for dinner and then lunch the next day for my wife and I. There are few better feelings than spending 0 minutes cooking a delicious meal. Which is how long it took me to cook these leftovers.
Next, you’ll need to get your hands on fresh, high quality beets.
Online produce delivery is growing like crazy. And for good reason. It’s extremely convenient and the products are higher quality than you may find at many grocery stores.
To help you decide which delivery service is best for you, check out this post I wrote on the 8 best places to order vegetables online.
