This Butternut Squash Farro Salad with Arugula and Cranberries is loaded with fall flavors! Healthy, whole grain and vegan optional, it’s the perfect side dish to add to your Thanksgiving table!

Happy Halloween! Sorry I’m not sharing a quick recipe you can make for the kids tonight before trick-or-treating. These Mini Spider Pizzas I made a while back would work though! Unless you’re throwing a Halloween party, invited to one or have kids, it kind of loses it’s luster when you’re an adult. It also stinks when it falls on a weeknight. Parents are rushed coming home from work trying to get the kids dressed up and fed before heading out. Then there’s those of us handing out the candy who enjoy it from about 6:30-7:30, but start to get annoyed if anyone comes to the door after 8:00…or maybe that’s just me.

This year we’re having nice weather for the trick-or-treaters. Halloween is always iffy in Colorado. It’s been known to snow here in October, but luckily that’s not the case this year. In fact it’s been feeling anything but fallish. I love it for running, but I also have flannel shirts, scarves and boots that want to be worn and the only thing I’m wearing lately is shorts and tank tops.

To keep myself in the fall mood I’ve been making lots of fall flavored recipes like this Butternut Squash Farro Salad with Arugula and Cranberries. There’s actually several more ingredients in this salad, but the recipe title would have been ridiculously long if I included them all. This salad will make a great side dish for Thanksgiving this year, can you believe it’s less than a month away? It also works great as a main dish for meatless Monday. If you skip the ricotta salata cheese that I used, it also becomes a vegan friendly salad.

This Butternut Squash Farro Salad with Arugula and Cranberries includes many of the ingredients I love using the most in fall. Roasted butternut squash, dried cranberries, toasted pepitas, I add them to almost all of my salads. Instead of using rice or quinoa I decided to go with farro. If you’ve never had farro it’s a chewy grain similar in texture and flavor to wheat berries. I absolutely love this whole grain and it’s chewiness is perfect in this salad. The salad is dressed in a light vinaigrette that is sweetened with maple syrup for even more fall flavor. With Halloween out of the way it’s time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and this farro salad definitely needs to make an appearance on your table!

Butternut Squash Farro Salad with Arugula and Cranberries

Name: Butternut Squash Farro Salad with Arugula and Cranberries
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 cup uncooked farro; 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and diced (about 3 cups); Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper; 1/3 cup dried cranberries; 1/3 cup ricotta salata; 1/4 cup toasted unsalted pepitas; 3 cups arugula; 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil; 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar; 1 tablespoon water; 1 1/2 teaspoons pure maple syrup; 3 tablespoons minced shallot; Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients