Most of the time when it comes to planning, I’m a last minute kind of girl…mostly because I keep changing my mind. That was not the case with this salad that I prepared for my book club last night. Our book was The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd (one of my favorite authors) and I wanted to have something that was somewhat authentic to the region and time period of the book. It was set during Biblical times in Israel. This menu might not be totally authentic, but it was totally delicious.

I love Half Baked Harvest and have had this recipe bookmarked on my computer for several months now and knew it would be perfect for book club. I followed the original recipe pretty much to the letter and even though there are a lot of ingredients, it came together pretty quickly and easily. One of the best parts is that you can make it in steps…cook the farro, grill the asparagus, chop the veggies, and then assemble it at the last minute. It’s served room temperature which makes it perfect for entertaining.

I served this salad with the most delicious Turkey and Zucchini Mini Burgers from my Jerusalem - A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi along with an appetizer platter with stuffed grape leaves, and goat cheese filled dates. Dessert was pistachio baklava and slices of olive oil cake. I was pretty pleased with myself over this menu and the evening was so much fun!

Recipe

My book club is one of my favorite things in the world. I always look forward to getting together with my friends and discussing the book we’ve read. We meet January thru May …take the summer off and come back together in September. We have 8 ladies and have been a club for longer than I can remember. It’s always a special event and everyone goes to so much trouble. I always look forward to hosting and it’s especially nice when the menu can be dictated by the book. Are you in a book club and does your club make dinner or just get together?