Warm Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables, Fontina, and Chicken

I like mixing my grains up for some variety and decided to try a farro dish.  I had farro for the first time a couple years ago and loved its chewiness and nutiness!  It makes the dish feel heartier with farro than a smaller or less substantial grain.  I came across this warm farro salad recipe with roasted vegetables and fontina and knew I had to try it!  I made a few tweaks based on what ingredients I was able to find easily and personal preferences.  I also added chicken because while I like vegetarian dishes occasionally, I've had a lot recently and wanted some meat this time around.  But definitely feel free to change this recipe based on your personal tastes and keep it vegetarian if that's what you'd prefer.

Servings: 2 (maybe 3, but this was a 2 for me).

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini, cut into small chunks
1 cup grape tomatoes
5 oz baby bella mushrooms, cut into small chunks
1 red onion, chopped
2-3 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1-1 1/2 cups farro (Trader Joe's has 10 minute farro bags which are each 1 1/2 cups)
2-3 ounces fontina cheese, cut into small cubes
1-2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 cup shredded chicken (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Combine 2 chopped zucchini, 1 cup grape tomatoes, 4 oz chopped mushrooms, 1 chopped red onion, and 2-3 tsps garlic in a large bowl.  
• Either: (1) add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper, toss until all vegetables are coated, and spread on a lined baking sheet; or (2) spread out the vegetables on a lined baking sheet and then spray with an olive oil spray and then season with salt and pepper (I like this option because I think it means I use less oil, but who knows if that's really true).

• Bake vegetables for about 25 minutes, stirring a couple times.

• While vegetables are roasting, cook 1 to 1 1/2 cups of farro according to instructions and then drain.
• Combine the farro with the vegetables.  
• Stir in 2-3 oz cubed fontina and 2-3 tbsps chopped parsley
• Whisk together 2 tbsps olive oil and 1 tbsps balsamic vinegar.  
• Drizzle oil and vinegar mixture over farro mixture and season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Enjoy!

Hey!  Psst!  Come here girls, I want to take a photo.

 Not that close Rosy!

Adapted from theKitchn.