Farro bowls, like other grain bowls, are a weeknight workhorse.
Are you trying to eat more of a plant-based diet? Want to up your whole foods intake (the way of eating, not the supermarket – heh)? Do you wish you could get on the lunch-prep bandwagon? These bowls will help with all of your goals.
Bowl-based meals are easy. Just pick a grain, pick some veggies, and pick your toppings. You can make things really elaborate (multiple toppings, multiple veggies requiring different cooking, fancy grain preparation), but that is the brunch-at-our-place, impress you with youthful-but-sophisticated dinner plan. This plan is for the workhorse meals, which are mostly what I like to cook and eat. So:
Grain. In this case, par-cooked farro, done in 10 minutes. Dressed with a quick oil-lemon-herb thing and tossed about.
Sauce: Plain yogurt with lemon juice, S&P, mint, and parsley.
Veggies: batons of carrot, tossed in oil and ground coriander and blistered up in a hot pan. Sugar snap peas added, which blister up almost instantly in that same pan. (no washing up or extra pots)
And the assembly. I always go with grain on the bottom, veggies in the middle, sauce on the top. This is very old-school food pyramid of me, and you don’t have to do it this way. Let your weeknight meal artist fly free. As long as she does it quickly and with no extra dishes.
- 250g or about 2 cups of farro - use par-cooked or instant for speedy prep.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- juice of ½ a lemon + 1 more tablespoon
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup parsley, finely chopped & divided in half
- ½ cup mint, finely chopped & divided in half
- 1 cup plain yogurt, European style (creamy, not set) is best
- 6 carrots
- about 2 cups of sugar snap peas
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- Make the farro: fill a small pot with water, bring to the boil, and cook farro according to package directions. Drain, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, salt & pepper, ½ cup of chopped parsley, and ¼ cup chopped mint. Toss to combine.
- Make the yogurt sauce: Mix 1 cup yogurt with ½ cup chopped parsley, ¼ cup chopped mint, and the juice of ½ a lemon. Add salt and plenty of pepper, and stir to combine.
- Make the veggies: cut 6 carrots into batons. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add the carrots, ground coriander, and salt and pepper. Toss to coat the carrots, then leave alone without moving until carrots start to blacken and blister, about 3-4 minutes. Toss for another minute to cook on other sides, then remove to a plate. Add the peas and salt and pepper to the hot pan. Allow to blacken and blister for about 2-3 minutes without moving. Toss 1 more minute, then remove and add to the plate with the carrots.
- To assemble bowls: add ½ to ¾ cup of farro to each bowl, top with as many veggies as you like, then top generously with yogurt sauce.