bob loves farro salads. They are tasty and healthy and relatively easy to throw together. The only question is what lineup to choose for the veggie add-ins. We've done a few in the past but this time asparagus was on bob's mind and in the fridge ready for an application. Mushrooms seemed like a good partner for the asparagus, but chickpeas are great for adding protein to the mix. So the nternet search had 5 key words in the search (hint: read the title of this recipe). One candidate popped up at the top of the hit list without chickpeas, but Google AI came up with its own recipe synthesized from its findings, adding the qualifier Mediterranean to the title and introducing it with the phrase: "This vibrant Mediterranean-style salad combines nutty farro, tender-crisp asparagus, savory mushrooms, and protein-packed chickpeas." Shows real talent with the word smithing.
We originally left out mushrooms from the key words and got nearly the same AI recipe without them, which we printed out. It also liked crumbled feta or goat cheese enough to add to the main ingredient list, but we already had loaded up that list, including two baby zucchini left overs, and looked to the chick peas as the preferred protein component. It did suggest toasted pistachios or slivered almonds, and we are big fans of the green nut so that convinced us. The actual recipe that popped up suggested grated parmigiano, so we decided to add some shaved parmegiano at the end. The AI one suggested fresh mint or basil so we added both from our deck produce pots. The lemon vinaigrette dressing of the AI recipe replaced the red wine vinegar of the actual recipe by lemon juice and lemon zest, which bob went with since he has some irrational probably unjustified dislike for vinegar. Ani wanted chopped black olives in this experiment. The AI wanted some cherry tomatoes, which would have given some contrasting color to the result. Maybe next time.
She did the stove work, assembly and food styling for the final photos before serving portions to wo hungry eaters from the cooking team. Bob did a bunch of prep work. The result was super delicious! We will do this again. You should give it a try, definitely.