Grains, Greens and Scrambled Eggs

Since I have been on my farro kick all summer, I have made this greens and grains dish many times for breakfast throughout the summer.  It started out to be a cooler summer, so a nice warm dish which comes together so quickly was just what I was craving many times this summer.  It is a filling dish with the protein and grains, but also gives that boost of greens which I often crave.  This is another recipe adapted from Whole Grain Mornings, but there are so many grains to try that you can easily substitute whatever you have been cooking recently as long as you have some leftover!

Greens and Grains
1-2 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
1-2 pinches salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 green onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup (or as much as desired) packed greens (I like arugula or spinach)
1/4 cup cooked whole grains (I used farro, but barley or wheat berries would be good)
1 tablespoon chives, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, whisk together milk, salt and egg(s).  Heat about 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat.  When the oil is hot, add the green onion and garlic and cook for about 1 minute.  Add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil then the grains and greens.  Cook until warmed throughout, about 3-5 minutes.  Decrease heat to low and add the egg mixture.  Stir until they are cooked, 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat, add pepper and salt to taste.  Add the chopped chives.

Serves 1, but can easily doubled to serve two.

Sesame Seed Farro Bowl with Cucumbers

In my search to use more whole grains, I came across the cookbook the whole food kitchen by amy chaplin.  This recipe uses one of my favorite grains, farro, as the basis for the salad.  The best part is that the only cooking required is the farro and it can be done in advance since it is a room temperature or cold salad.  The sesame seeds in this recipe make it smell deliciously nutty (though there aren't any nuts) and the soy sauce adds a bit of a salty flavor with more depth.  It also keeps well so you can eat this again and several days later after cutting up additional tomatoes and cucumbers.  It has become one of the salads for the summer as I have already made it several times.  If you like farro, you should try this one out.

Parsley Farro Salad with Sesame Seeds
2 1/2 cups cooked farro, cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar with pomegranate (or just red wine vinegar)
1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon light soy sauce (or 1/2 teaspoon tamari)
3/4 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
1 scallion, finely chopped (more for garnish or reserve some for garnish)
1/2 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley (and a little more for garnish)
1 - 1 2/c cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 medium cucumber, diced
Additional olive oil or flax oil drizzled on top to serve (if desired)

Place cooled farro in a medium-large bowl.  Sprinkle red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, soy sauce and olive oil over the farro and stir to combine.  Add toasted sesame seeds, parsley, and scallions.  Mix again.  Season to taste with additional soy sauce.  Spoon into bowls and top with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, additional parsley, additional scallions.  Drizzle (if desired) with flax or olive oil and serve.  (Serves 3-4)

Scrambled Eggs with Greens and Grains

My husband and I have been traveling a number of weekends in a row.  When we get home I am not very inspired to cook until I have had a day of rest, so I asked him what he wanted for dinner the next night.  We had just eaten pasta, which is one of the only things that he cooks, when I asked him what he wanted.  He replied with grains.  I asked for more information and he said that he used to be satisfied with just pasta, pasta and more pasta, but that I have introduced a lot of variety into his diet and now he wanted some of that variety.  So as I was looking through recipes with grains, I remembered Whole Grain Mornings and was determined to have a hot breakfast this morning which would warm me from the inside out.  This is really an easy recipe to throw together especially if you have just a little bit of grains left over from some other recipe.  I didn't, so I cooked up just 1/3 cup of farro, which is one of my most favorite grains.  That 1/3 cup cooked up to quite a bit more than I wanted for just one serving, so I will be eating these scrambled eggs again very soon.

Scrambled Eggs with Greens and Grains
Serves 1 (easily doubled to serve 2)

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tablespoon milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 green onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 cup (or two handfuls) greens (I used arugula, but you can also use spinach, Swiss chard, etc.)
1/4 cup cooked grains (I used farro, but you can use wheat berries or barley too)
1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives
pepper and salt to taste

Whisk together eggs, milk and salt.  Heat the tablespoon of oil over medium heat.  Saute the green onion and garlic until soft, about 1 minute (as it will continue to cook with the greens).  Add the greens and grain and saute.  (You can add a little more olive oil if you need to.)  When the greens are wilted and grains warm, decrease the heat to low and pour in the egg mixture.  Stir eggs until they are lightly scrambled, 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat, sprinkle on the chives, salt and pepper to taste.  Serve right away with crusty bread if desired.

Farro and Lentil Soup

This past winter I have experimented with lentil recipes.  This was one of them that I tried.  I have mixed feelings about lentils as sometimes I really like them and sometimes they just aren't very good.  This recipe definitely falls into the very good category.  It is one of the reasons I still have lentils in my house.  I want to have more recipes that make me like lentils, so I can make more soups/dishes with them as I find them filling, tasty and healthy.  The other part of this recipe that I like is the farro.  I have been obsessed with farro for more than a year and I am always happy to integrate it into recipes which I didn't have to do for this one.

This soup is based off a recipe in Bough, Borrowed and Stolen by Allegra McEvedy.  This is quite an interesting cookbooks as each chapter focuses on a different part of the world where she traveled to and wanted to replicated in this book.  I like it as it has several recipes for a place and because I like to cook different and interesting recipes from around the world.

Farro and Lentil Soup
5 oz. smoked bacon, cut into pieces (mine were about 1/4 inch thick)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, diced finely
2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped (with leaves)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 generous pinch (or two) of red pepper flakes
6 oz. lentils (small lentils)
3 oz. farro
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, then add the onions and bacon.  Put on a lid and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  After a minute or two, add the celery, rosemary, garlic, red pepper flakes and a pinch or two of salt.  Meanwhile, rinse the lentils and farro and then add them to the saucepan.  After about 2 minutes, add the chicken stock.  Stir everything together and place the lid on (allowing for steam to escape).  Bring the mixture to a simmer.  After about 20-30 minutes your lentils and farro should be cooked.  Remove half the soup and place in a blender (to thicken the soup) and return it to the saucepan.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Let it simmer for another 5 minutes (lid on, but allowing for steam to escape).  Serve with a drizzle of good quality olive oil on top.

Farro Salad with Mint, Zucchini and Feta Cheese

Farro Salad with Mint, Zucchini and Feta Cheese

I few weeks before I made this salad I made another using farro (http://invitedtodinner.blogspot.com/2013/08/summer-farro-salad-with-tomatoes.html).  I had forgotten how much I liked the texture and flavor of this ancient grain.  Since I still had some remaining and I was given some zucchini, I decided I should really cook it again and soon.  This recipe is adapted from Jaime Oliver's America.

I have been hesitant to try mint with other savory foods, but I am not sure why.  Maybe because I think it is simply wonderful as a drink and couldn't quite figure out how that would work in a salad.  Peppermint however is very different from sweet mint which I used in this recipe.  It also compliments zucchini very well.  I also used a sweeter Anaheim red pepper for this recipe which while not very spicy, complimented the flavors as well.  Finally, the feta sets everything off so don't forget to add it!

Farro Salad with Mint, Zucchini and Feta Cheese
1 cup farro, cooked with chicken stock
olive oil
1 small-medium zucchini
1 small-medium yellow squash (or just double the zucchini)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced (or pressed)
2 fresh Anaheim chiles
3-4 scallions, chopped into thin slices
1 lemon
feta cheese - about 1/3 pound or to your taste, cubed or crumbled into smaller pieces

Cook the farro with the chicken stock for about 20 minutes or until cooked, but not mushy.  Drain and set aside.  In a medium pan (or large enough for vegetables and farro), put 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil (I rarely measure, but enough to coat the zucchini when hot).  When the oil is hot (use a medium-high heat) add the zucchini, squash, garlic and most of your red chiles.  When the zucchini and squash starts to brown, add your scallions, most of the mint and then salt and pepper to taste (though at this point it is better to use little since there will be salt from the stock as well).  Grate in the zest from the lemon and then add the juice as well.  Add a little more olive oil to be sure nothing is sticking to the pan.

Add the farro and toss everything together, making sure that everything has been well mixed.  Remove from heat and let room to room temperature.  Fold in the rest of your mint and your crumbled feta cheese.  I also added some leftover scallions.  Serve at room temperature, but this also keeps well in the refrigerator.

Serves 2-4

Summer Farro Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Basil

Summer Farro Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Basil

In the past year or so, I have come to love farro.  A few years back, I was visiting a friend of mine in Maryland.  We went out to breakfast and she ordered a porridge, but instead of the traditional oatmeal, it was made with farro.  I am not a fan of oatmeal as it seems like a bowl of mush without any flavor to it.  However, the farro was a different texture and held it's form, so therefore I was curious.

A few years later, I came across a simple bean stew which served the beans over cooked farro.  This was the first time I cooked it.  (That recipe is also on this blog....here.)  The white beans and farro complimented each other well.  The beans soft and the farro gave it some chew for better texture.  So recently when I came across farro as a cold salad, I thought I have got to try it.  This recipe is based off of one from The Kitchn's blog.

Summer Farro Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Basil
1 medium vidalia onion, chopped
olive oil (I used a Greek extra-virgin from bikos.org)
1 cup farro
2 cups chicken stock
1/8 red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
 1/2 pint cherub cherry tomatoes (or other sweet cherry tomato), quartered
1/3 English hothouse cucumber, chopped into similar sized pieces to the cherry tomatoes
hand full of basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and add the chopped onion.  Cook for a couple of minutes.  Do not brown.  Add farro and cook for a minute; coat each grain.  Add chicken stock and stir.  Bring to a boil and cook until farro is chewy. (Mine took about 15 minutes.)  Let the farro cool.  Add the red wine vinegar and olive oil.  Add the tomatoes, cucumber and basil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.  

Serves about 4

New Year, New Food - White Bean Stew with Rosemary, Garlic and Farro

The New Year brings new things to do and try for the upcoming year.  Plans are made, and fresh starts are started.  In December I came across a cookbook that I decided I could not live without, and so I have purchased Cook This Now by Melissa Clark.  Not only have I fallen in love with the recipes in this cookbook, but I have decided like many others, to try and cook every recipe in the cookbook.  I love how it is divided into months.  Each month has a focus on foods which are available at that time of the year.  Not only will this widen my horizons with foods I would not have tried before now, but it is a challenge to see if I can attain the delicious flavors which come together in ways I have not tried.  So in reference to this so far wonderful cookbook, I will not be posting the recipes in this cookbook.  If you like what you see, I encourage you to also get the cookbook.  Happy New Year!  Happy Cooking!

Cook This Now 

White Bean Stew with Rosemary, Garlic and Farro

 

This recipe is a simple stew with tremendous flavors, which you might not think when you read the recipe or even if you taste it while it is cooking.  The key to this is not the stew itself, but the finishing pieces of olive oil, flaky salt, red pepper and parsley.  These finishing ingredients make the stew what it is.

This recipe does take a while to cook, so prepare for it when you have a lot of time at home.  However, it does not require a lot of attention, so you do not have to be in the kitchen the entire time.  Plus, as it is simmering away it send delicious smells of garlic, onion, rosemary and thyme through the kitchen.  I let the stew simmer through the day as I intended to eat it for dinner instead of lunch, though it would have been ready earlier.  The only consequence was that the rosemary and thyme cooked off of their stems, but did not diminish from the flavor.  Also, note make sure if you are going to simmer all day that you will need to remove the onion, celery and garlic before they disappear into a mush that used to resemble what you put in the pot.