Farro - An Italian Grain

Most everyone has heard of quinoa. This is a lesser known grain, farro. It is the Italian grain from a wheat species that has twice the fiber and protein than most wheat. Farro also helps improve the immune system, lower cholesterol, and maintain blood sugar levels. I bought precooked farro since Trader Joe's started carrying it a couple weeks ago. (I will look for farro at different supermarkets to see what other kinds I can find.)

To cook farro, just put 2 cups of chicken broth (or water) with 1 cup of farro in a small pot. It takes roughly 15 minutes. I added chopped green onions, diced bell peppers, and chopped green beans. Gave it a stir before starting to cook it.

Farro has a chewy texture that reminded us of oatmeal. Adding the chopped green onions and veggies made it more interesting.

If you want an easier way, you can cook farro like i cook quinoa. Put the ingredients in a rice cooker!!

Then to make it a meal, I had a couple Wild Alaskan Cod pieces. Heat up some oil in the pan, add cod. Sprinkle salt, a squeeze of lemon, and some freshly ground pepper. After three minutes, flip the cod fillets. Add a squeeze of lemon and fresh ground pepper. Cook for three minutes more on this side. Place on top of farro. 

Enjoy!!

Quinoa!! Try it tonight!

In the last post, I made a quinoa meatloaf.  I have a love affair with quinoa, my favorite grain!!  This protein rich grain is my substitute when I want to switch up my brown rice.  It's hearty with a fluffy texture similar to that of couscous.  The simplest way to make quinoa is to use a rice cooker (You may also cook on the stove top).

Simple Quinoa (Healthier at half the sodium; most recipes call for 2 cups of broth)
Prep Time: 2 min        Cook Time: 20 min
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa (1/2 cup of dry quinoa yields 2 cups cooked quinoa)
1 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1 cup water
*Note: Quinoa can also be cooked with 2 cups of water but I like to cut sodium.

Directions:
Put all ingredients into the rice cooker.  Press start.  Then you have time to prep the rest of your meal.

When cooking brown rice, quinoa, or barley/bean grains, the ratio of water to grain is 2:1.  *Places like Whole Foods don't do justice for grains like brown rice.  If your only experience with brown rice is from Whole Foods (prepared foods section), you need to try it again when it is cooked correctly.  They don't add enough liquid which causes it to be dry.  I have written comments to them but I don't know if they took my advice.*  For example, if you wanted to make 2 cups of quinoa, you would need 4 cups of liquid.  The reason I mix water and chicken broth is because I am like to limit the sodium intake of my food.  Halt the salt is very important.  *Typically a can of chicken broth contains 40% of your daily value of sodium!!*

If you want to make your quinoa more interesting, you can chop 1/2 a cup of onions and 1/4 cup of pine nuts.  In a medium saucepan, heat some olive oil. add chopped onions(I used red onions) and carmelize by stirring (about 5 minutes).  Add the pine nuts to toast them.  After the pine nuts are slightly toasted, put the cooked quinoa in the pan.  Stir to mix.

Enjoy!!!  =)