Ina Garten Just Revealed Her All-Time Favorite Vegetarian Dish

If you’re looking for a truly delicious recipe with fresh ingredients and lots of flavor, you can’t go wrong with an Ina Garten original. The host of Barefoot Contessa is always sharing simple, but tasty, recipes that get our mouths watering, whether it’s for a bowl of rich and creamy pasta e fagioli or some light and fresh lemon chicken.

Related: 24 Ina Garten Recipes We Can't Stop Making

The only tough thing about making an Ina recipe is actually choosing which one you want to try—that’s why we’re always thrilled when Ina does the hard part for us.  If she wants to reveal her favorite recipes and dinner party menus, we’re always happy to listen. At a recent appearance at the Nashville Antiques and Garden Show,  Ina made our dinner plans for the week when she revealed her favorite vegetarian dish: Charlie Bird’s Farro Salad.

This recipe is named for Charlie Bird, the New York City restaurant with an enticingly simple farro salad on the menu. Ina re-created it for her 2018 cookbook, Cook Like a Pro, and made it a go-to dish in the Garten house. Sharing the recipe a couple of years ago on Instagram, she wrote that while this salad is definitely lighter fare, it’s “so delicious and satisfying that no one minds.”

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And if you plan to re-create the magic of this recipe at home, the task ahead is pretty simple. You’ll need, of course, pearled farro, fresh apple cider, bay leaves, good olive oil, lemon juice, salted pistachios, fresh parsley, fresh mint, cherry tomatoes, radishes, baby arugula, Parmesan cheese and flaky sea salt.

The first step in this recipe is preparing your farro, which only takes about 40 minutes. Combine the farro with the apple cider and bay leaves in a saucepan, and add a big pinch of salt and some water. Bring the mixture up to a boil and lower the heat, letting it simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the farro is tender. (On the off chance that the farro absorbs all the liquid before it’s done, simply add more water.) Add the farro to your serving bowl and throw out the bay leaves. If you want to prep this salad in advance, you can easily make the farro the day before and have it in the fridge and ready to go.

Related: Ina Garten's Italian Wedding Soup Is One of Her Favorite Cold-Weather Recipes

With the farro all set, whisk up a vinaigrette using your fresh lemon juice and olive oil, plus salt and pepper. Stir the vinaigrette into the warm farro and give the grains about 15 minutes to cool. As it cools, prep your salad ingredients—roughly chop your fresh herbs, slice the cherry tomatoes in half, thinly slice your radishes and shave your Parmesan cheese. When the farro is the perfect temperature, stir in the pistachios, herbs, tomatoes and radishes. Then add arugula and carefully fold in the Parmesan—these ingredients are more delicate, so you’ll want to be gentle with them. Top with a bit of flaky salt, and this salad is ready to serve.

If you’ve never made farro before, you may have a new favorite pantry staple on your hands. We love using farro in just about any grain bowl, like our Grilled Vegetable & Black Bean Farro Bowls or Green Goddess Farro Bowl. You can also swap in the fiber-packed whole grain in our Farro Risotto with Mushrooms & Greens.

In the chilliest part of winter, it can be easy to ignore salads as an easy dinner option. After all, some of our favorite salads are cool, light and chock-full of summer produce. But this salad is filling and flavorful, and it stars ingredients that you can get just about any time of year—so try it out yourself the next time you need a quick, simple vegetarian lunch or dinner. In our experience, anything that Ina calls a “favorite” is bound to knock you off your feet.