Skip to main content
Epicurious
Cookbooks

Gialina's Kale & Farro Salad With Avocado

By Tara Duggan

4.5

(12)

Image may contain Plant Kale Food Cabbage Vegetable Cutlery and Spoon
Gialina's Kale & Farro Salad with AvocadoClay McLachlan

Our neighborhood pizzeria, Gialina, gets high marks for its thin-crust pies and the impeccable produce that chef-owner Sharon Ardiana uses in her toppings and sides. Her salads are always irresistible, and this one is not only delicious, it also uses whole kale leaves, including the stems. Ardiana tosses chopped raw kale with bright rounds of sweet carrots, creamy avocado, and a handful of nutty farro for sweetness and texture, and then adds a garlic dressing that is reminiscent of green goddess dressing but without the mayonnaise.

Note: Ardiana's favorite vinegar, and mine too, is Moscatel vinegar made by the Spanish brand Unio. It's spendy but complex and fruity. Look for it online or at Whole Foods or specialty stores, or substitute Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar. You only need half to two-thirds of the dressing for this recipe; leftovers will hold for about a week in the refrigerator.

Prep Tip

To remove stems from chard or kale, start by trimming the stem ends. Then hold a leaf by the stem in one hand and use the other hand to tear the leaves from the stem into bite-size pieces. To make cleaner-looking stems, use a knife to cut the leaves from the stem on both sides in a pointy triangle.

See Related Recipes and Cooking Tips

Read More
Charred Vegetable Ragù
This sauce is slightly magical. The texture cloaks pasta much like a traditional meat sauce does, and the flavors are deep and rich, but it’s actually vegan!
Fufu
Fufu is a dish that has been passed down through many generations and is seen as a symbol of Ghanaian identity and heritage. Making fufu traditionally is a very laborious task; this recipe mimics some of that hard work but with a few home-cook hacks that make for a far easier time.
Smothered Italian Sausage
This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.
Gigante Beans With Seaweed Salmoriglio
Salmoriglio is a Mediterranean sauce with herbs, garlic, and olive oil. In this version, kelp is used as the base of the sauce.
Crispy Oyster Mushroom Skewers With Bok Choy Salad
Oyster mushrooms are a strong all-rounder in the kitchen, seeming to straddle both plant and meat worlds in what they look and taste like when cooked. Here they’re coated in a marinade my mother used to use when cooking Chinese food at home—honey, soy, garlic and ginger—and roasted until golden, crisp, and juicy.
Zucchini, Pea, and Bulgur Pilaf
This fragrant salad uses bulgur wheat as its base, an endlessly versatile, slightly chewy grain that’s very popular throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
Smoky Tofu Shakshuka
This vegan version of the classic North African scramble uses soft silken tofu instead of eggs without any sacrifice of flavor.
Black Sesame Tofu “Basque” Cheesecake
There are many things that appeal about a Basque cheesecake—it's crustless (one less job) and is meant to look “rustic” with its wrinkled and jagged sides.