Farrotto is just rissotto made with farro, my new favorite whole-grain. This recipe comes from the March/April issue of Eating Well magazine. Like always, if you can’t find farro you can sub it with pearled barley–but really try to find farro.
Farrotto with Artichokes Recipe
This is a healthy alternative to regular risotto, vegetarian if made using vegetable broth, and vegan if you don’t add the cheese. It’s full of tomatoes, artichokes, and fresh basil.
{This is my 100th Post! Yay!}
Farro.What is it? Farro is a whole-grain, similar to wheat, grown in Italy. Unlike spelt or wheatberries, it remains crunchy when you cook it. It has a nutty, earthy taste with some complex undertones of oats and barley.
It took me forever to find farro. I looked in (1)Whole Foods, (2)Trader Joes, (3)Bristol Farms, (4)the local crunchy-granola health food store, (5)Henry’s, (6)Vons. I finally found it at Surfas, which I probably would have gone sooner if it wasn’t an hour drive. I was determined to find it and my determination paid off. The taste is out of this world. If you find some, buy it and cook with it.
Farro with Green Onion Sauce, Toasted Walnuts, and Asparagus was the next recipe for me to try out of Super Natural Cooking. In addition to the farro, which is the star of the recipe, the green onion sauce is absolutely amazing in taste and simplicity. It’s chopped up green onions, sauteed with a bit of olive oil and salt. The onions are then slightly pureed with a hand blender. That’s it!
Once the farro is almost done cooking, you add in the asparagus, toasted walnuts, lemon zest. Season with salt (I also added freshly squeezed lemon juice–I didn’t want the lemon to go to waste after taking its zest :p ). Serve it by topping with the green onion sauce, creme fraiche, and some parm cheese.
You can find the recipe here.
