This delicious radicchio salad recipe combines thinly shredded radicchio with chewy farro, shredded chicken, feta cheese, fresh mint, walnuts, oranges, and a citrus dressing. It’s a wonderful way to subdue the bitter taste of radicchio and take advantage of this beautiful vegetable!
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I have a cousin who runs farmers markets in the Philadelphia area. She loves local veggies (just like me!) and always posts beautiful images of radicchio on her Instagram story.
I have to agree that radicchio is such a gorgeous vegetable. Its leaves are speckled and striped with stunning shades of purple. Each head seems to carry a unique and mesmerizing design. I love when veggies do that!
So, consider this shredded radicchio salad an appreciation post for this lesser known winter vegetable. I don’t focus on radicchio that much, mainly because it’s fairly bitter and not that common. But I know that many of you love to try new seasonal vegetables. Or maybe you got radicchio in a winter farm share box and need a way to use it.
This salad is my attempt to turn a head of radicchio into a complete meal — a hearty grain salad that can be enjoyed warm or cold and for lunch or dinner. It’s complete with farro and chicken to add some oomph, fresh herbs and salty feta for flavor, and a honey orange juice dressing to provide enough sweetness to complement radicchio’s bitter bite. I hope you enjoy!
How to Make Shredded Radicchio Salad
- Prep the components. Cook and shred the chicken, cook the farro, cut the oranges, slice the radicchio, chop the herbs, and prep the dressing.
- Combine everything in a bowl. Toss with the dressing, and enjoy!
For tips on how to slice radicchio thinly, additions or substitutions, and more, read through my expert tips section. The full recipe card is at the bottom of the post.
Expert Tips
- Radicchio: Use a small head of radicchio, which yields about 4 cups thinly sliced, for this recipe. Radicchio is bitter, but one thing that helps prevent it from overpowering the dish is to slice it as thinly as possible so that it’s spread out in the salad and mixed in well with all of the other flavors. You can shred radicchio with a sharp knife or a mandolin. Cut the radicchio into quarters, slice off the core of each quarter, and then slice the radicchio quarters into thin strips. Or run the radicchio quarters through a mandolin (don’t forget to use the safety guard), like I do with cabbage in this post on How to Shred Cabbage with a Mandoline.
- Feta: I love the convenience of buying feta that’s already crumbled, but I recently bought a block of feta that I broke apart myself and the flavor was noticeably better! All feta is good feta in my opinion, but if you’re looking for a little extra flavor, try buying a block and then crumbling it yourself.
- Prep in advance: To save time, cook the farro and shredded chicken ahead of time. You can even make the dressing in advance too.
- Substitutions and additions: If you want this to be vegetarian, omit the chicken and add a can of white beans or chickpeas. You can also sub parsley for the mint, another whole grain like brown rice or quinoa for the farro, and goat cheese for the feta. If you need to prepare a nut-free salad, substitute sunflower seeds for the walnuts.
- Leftovers: Store shredded radicchio salad in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Freshen it up with a squeeze of orange or lemon juice before eating if desired.
More Grain Salad Recipes
Love this shredded radicchio salad? Check out the Warm Farro Salad with Roasted Tomatoes, Quinoa Arugula Salad with Pineapple, and the Sugar Snap Pea Quinoa Salad. You may also enjoy the Kale Radicchio Salad with Sourdough Croutons for another way to use radicchio.
I’d love to hear how you like this recipe! Rate/review using the stars on the recipe card or in the comments, and follow the Veg World on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Looking for something totally different? Browse the recipe library.
Shredded Radicchio Salad with Farro and Chicken
Ingredients
For the salad
- 2 cups cooked farro
- 1.5 cups shredded chicken
- 1 small head radicchio - thinly sliced, about 4 cups
- 2 valencia oranges - peeled and segmented
- ⅓ cup walnuts - roughly chopped
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
- ¼ cup chopped fresh mint
For the dressing
- ½ cup orange juice - freshly squeezed or from a container
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon salt - more to taste
Instructions
- Cook the farro according to package instructions to yield 2 cups.
- Cook and shred the chicken. To boil chicken breasts, add them to a large pot and add enough water (or chicken broth) to cover them. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a rapid simmer. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. Remove chicken breasts from the pot. Shred with two forks on a cutting board.
- While the chicken and farro are cooking, prep the other ingredients. Slice the radicchio, prep the oranges, chop the walnuts and mint, and crumble the feta. In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice, olive oil, honey, Dijon, apple cider vinegar, and salt.
- Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss with the dressing until coated. Enjoy!
- Leave a rating or review by tapping the stars on this recipe card (above) or in the comments section (at the end of the post).
Notes
- Store leftovers in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days. Add a squeeze of orange or lemon juice before serving to freshen up the salad if desired.
- Prep the farro and chicken in advance to save time.
- If you want this salad to be vegetarian, omit the chicken and add a can of beans.
Nutrition
Enjoy this colorful dish! – Lizzie
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