I disobeyed the key ingredient and substituted quinoa. Admittedly, quinoa is not meant to be used here at all. Alison gives a list of five grain options, all of which have gluten, and none of which are quinoa. But alas, there are just some compromises that I need to make so my body doesn’t revolt against me.
Quinoa doesn’t have the same kind of satisfying, chewy bite that farro has, and it soaks up flavor really quickly. Which I think are two reasons why I wasn’t blown away by this salad. Both of which are not Alison’s fault. But in general, my main critique is that it needs more flavor, regardless of grain choice. It’s heading in a really good direction – frizzled garlic slices and fennel seeds, caramelized lemon and fennel bulb – and I wished it went further! I think it could use lemon juice or white wine vinegar, which I ended up adding. I want it to require parmesan! (Which Alison suggests as an option in the comments, and I recommend taking this advice.) I ate this grain salad and said out loud to our dinner guests, “But I want MORE FLAVOR!” I stand by that wish.
One element I appreciated is that after the lemon, garlic, and fennel elements are nice and toasty, the grains get added to the skillet with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to become slightly crispy and soak up all the garlicky oil. A crisped grain, IMO, is much more interesting than a non-crisped grain. You know? So this was a nice extra step that I didn’t mind doing.
And finally, here we have a truly rare Alison Roman moment, where she tells you to garnish the grains with BASIL! Alison recently admitted on social media that she doesn’t love basil, and I wasn’t at all surprised. I had noticed that this herb is hard to find anywhere in her books. She loves her dill, chives, thyme, and marjoram. But basil, and sort of rosemary too, hardly ever show up at the scene. So enjoy this moment where you get to have with basil, because it may be a while until you meet again.
127 recipes cooked, 98 to go.
