Roasted beet and avocado salad with basil lime vinaigrette is a hearty, textured, and delicious salad with arugula, farro, feta, basil, and crunchy toasted almonds! The flavors in this salad recipe are sure to shake up your lunch routine, plus you can meal prep a single or double batch on Sunday to eat all week.
Welcome to the land of ultra-satisfying salads that are HEARTY and packed with all the most possible textures and flavors without it getting weird (though if I'm being honest, I frequently blur the line between salad and Franken-salad). This roasted beet and avocado salad has everything you need: some seasonal produce like arugula and roasted beets, chewy farro, salty feta, crunchy slivered almonds, and buttery avocado with a basil lime vinaigrette that miiight change your life a little.
It's no secret that I'm a grain salad lover (please see cranberry feta wheat berry salad), and for good reason! They're the kind of salads you want to eat when you're in the mood to eat something filling, energizing, and veggie-packed. And while it's not required, this salad is extra enjoyable on a sunny patio in summer or fall!
Key Ingredients
- Arugula - A delicious and peppery base for this salad.
- Farro - There are a few kinds of farro: whole, semi-pearled, and pearled. Whole farro takes the longest to cook (30-40 minutes), semi-pearled is in the middle (20-25 minutes), and pearled cooks the fastest (10-15 minutes). I typically use semi-pearled whole, but with this being salad, any kind will work! That said, if you're trying to use up some pearled farro, you might want to try my one pan chicken and leeks with farro after you make this salad.
- Beets - You can use my herb roasted beets recipe, or my low-mess whole roasted beets method to get your beets prepped for this recipe.
- Avocado - Select a perfectly ripe avocado that is firm to touch with a slight give when you press with your thumb. If it's too ripe, the cubes will mush together in the salad. Not the worst thing, but for this salad the texture is best when avocado cubes hold 🙂
- Slivered almonds - If you want to toast these for extra flavor, I highly recommend! You can sometimes by dry toasted slivered almonds (such as the ones from Trader Joe's), which I'll do to save time. Raw slivered almonds will also work!
- Feta - Salty and always delicious in salads.
- Basil lime vinaigrette ingredients - For this delicious, lime-spiked variation of my homemade basil vinaigrette recipe, the core ingredients you'll are need fresh basil, olive oil, red wine vinegar, limes, garlic, and natural cane sugar.
Instructions
Meal Prep Tip: First, a quick note on prepping in advance (aka shortcuts!). If you plan ahead for this recipe, you can roast the beets and make the farro the night before, and simply toss everything together the next day.
In this post, however, we'll walk through the beet roasting a farro-cooking so you get a good idea of what the recipe looks like from start to finish.
Roasting the beets: First, we'll start with roasting the beets using my simple herb-roasted beets recipe. Simply scrub, peel, cube, and toss the beets in extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence (or dried basil). Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and lay prepared beets in a flat layer across a sheet pan. Roast them in the oven for 35 minutes while you make the rest of the salad!
Next, farro. Again, if you have leftover farro, you can skip this step. Otherwise, bring a small pot of salted water to a boil and add the farro. For semi-pearled farro -- preferred for this recipe and common in most grocery stores -- simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the farro is tender. Then, drain and rinse with cool water to immediately cool the farro and prepare it to go into the salad.
Now, prepare each of the following ingredients, adding each to a large bowl after prepping.
Arugula: Only needs to be wash but not chopped for this recipe.
Avocado: Dice it by slicing the entire fruit in half lengthwise, removing the pit, and slicing lines into the avocado flesh (while still in the skin) both horizontally and vertically. Then, scoop the avocado cubes out.
Feta: Measure and add to the bowl.
Slivered almonds: Simply add as they are, opt to dry toast the almond over medium heat in a skillet on the stove for 5-7 minutes (until fragrant), or simply measure and add to the bowl.
Basil: Slice fresh basil leaves into ribbons (I love using a kitchen shears!).
Once the beets and farro and cooked and cooled, add to the salad bowl with all of the above.
Finally, make the basil lime vinaigrette. Combine, fresh basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, lime, red wine vinegar, garlic cloves, natural cane sugar, salt, and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour half of the dressing over the salad right before serving, then toss to combine. Save the rest for later or use more if you like a lot of vinaigrette!
Hint: If you are not serving this salad right away, wait to add the avocado to avoid it turning brown.
Similarly, the beets will turn everything else pink if mixed in and left in the fridge overnight. I'll talk about some tips on this below, but know that the salad will taste delicious leftover... pink hue and all!
Substitutions & Variations
- Grain - Sub with a similarly textured grain such as wheat berries or barley, or go entirely different with something like quinoa.
- Nuts - Pistachios, pepitas, or sunflower seeds instead of almonds would be delicious! To dry toast nuts or seeds, place them in a hot skillet on the stove and toast, stirring frequently, until fragrant. You can also toast them on a sheet pan in the oven at 400 degrees until fragrant. Either, it usually takes about 5-7 minutes.
- Beets - Try golden beets instead of red beets for a slightly different take.
- Greens - Instead of arugula, you can try spinach or mixed greens.
- Vegan - Omit the feta or add your favorite vegan cheese!
- Fried Farro - Sauté leftover chilled farro in some olive oil, salt, and pepper before adding it to the salad. Yum!
FAQs
To store this roasted beet and avocado salad, place leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days for optimal freshness. Note, roasted beets love to share their color with all other ingredients 🙂 So if you're going for looks, you can store those separately and add right before serving. Likewise, avocado can brown pretty quickly in a couple days, so feel free to add that right before serving too. Looks aside, the leftovers taste great!
Top tip
Select perfectly ripe avocados so that they're not mushy in the salad! To get your avocados at peak ripeness, gently push on an avocado with your thumb -- there should be a slight give.
Print📖 Recipe
Roasted Beet and Avocado Salad with Basil Lime Vinaigrette
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: ~9 cups
Description
This roasted beet and avocado salad has a variety of flavors and textures that come together in one big, hearty, delicious salad. Shake up your healthy lunch routine!
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 1 cup beets, peeled and cubed (~1 large beet)
- ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp herbes de Provence (or dried basil)
- ½ cup farro, dried (preferably semi-pearled)
- 5 cups arugula
- 1 medium avocado, diced
- ¾ cup crumbled feta
- ½ cup slivered almonds
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves, sliced into ribbons
For the Basil Lime Vinaigrette:
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- Juice from 1 lime + ½ tsp lime zest
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp natural cane sugar
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp pepper
Instructions
- Roast the beets. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and toss beet cubes in olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence. Roast in the oven for 35 minutes while you make the rest of the salad.
- Cook the farro. Bring a pot of 1.5 cups salted water to a boil. Add farro, return pot to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 20-25 minutes. Drain and rinse farro in cool water.
- Make the salad. Combine arugula, avocado, feta, slivered almonds, and basil ribbons into a large bowl. Once the beets are completely cooled, add those along with the farro to the salad and gently toss to combine.
- Make the vinaigrette. Combine fresh basil leaves, red wine vinegar, garlic cloves, lime juice, lime zest, sugar, salt, and pepper in a blender or food processor. Blend until fully combined (~1 minute), then pour ½ of the vinaigrette all over the salad just before serving. Save the rest for later or use if you want more!
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Because of the nature of beets and avocado, I highly recommend waiting to add these ingredients until just before serving the salad. It will taste delicious either way, but beet juice will bleed all over the other ingredients if left overnight, and the avocado will start to brown. So, if an appetizing appearance matters to you in any way, this will help.
- Storage Instructions: Store the fully mixed and dressed leftover salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days. If you plan to eat this for lunch for a couple days in a row, I recommend the above make-ahead instructions, plus dividing up the vinaigrette for each day and dressing right before consumption. This is the freshest way to enjoy this salad, though again, it will be delicious either way!
- Optional: If you have time, make the beets and farro in advance so you can toss the salad together when ready!
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 35
- Category: Salad
- Method: Roast + Combine
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ~1.5 cups
- Calories: 357
- Sugar: 4.4 g
- Sodium: 363.7 mg
- Fat: 26.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.9 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 24.5 g
- Fiber: 7.3 g
- Protein: 10.6 g
- Cholesterol: 20 mg
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Mark Valdick says
I saw this recipe about a month ago, bookmarked it, and have been planning on making it...sometime. I finally broke down and made it tonigbt. I'm sorry I waited so long. I loved it. My family loved it. My guests loved.it. Soon, I will be loving it again.
Tera says
I'm so glad you made and liked this recipe, Mark! It is one of my favorites, too. Thanks so much for making & sharing it with loved ones 🙂