{"id":993,"date":"2009-04-14T17:51:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-14T17:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2009\/04\/14\/its-name-is-farro"},"modified":"2017-07-06T16:05:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T20:05:54","slug":"its-name-is-farro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2009\/04\/its-name-is-farro\/","title":{"rendered":"Its name is farro"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I type this, it is cloudy again, and cold. The weather today leaves much to be desired. Such as some sunlight, for starters, and warmth, and caramelized onions. Right now, I really, really desire caramelized onions.<\/p>\n

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\nI know that this picture doesn\u2019t seem to have much to do with onions, nor does it even seem appetizing, I imagine, but bear with me for a second. What you see there is my new ideal lunch: warm farro with French lentils, caramelized onions, and feta. It\u2019s ugly as sin, and it\u2019s also completely delicious. It\u2019s a little like a lentil salad and a lot like mujadara<\/a>, and if I could somehow ensure – maybe through magic, or fervent prayer – that there would always be a bowl of it in the fridge, I would gladly eat it every single day.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I find this time of year to be uniquely annoying. It\u2019s not winter, but it\u2019s also not quite spring. There are artichokes and asparagus, but aside from that, it\u2019s hard to know what to eat. So I go to the pantry, and I open it and sigh, and then I bring out the grains and legumes, the humble arsenal of the in-between season. Usually, I make the aforementioned mujadara, a soulful rice dish with green lentils and lots of caramelized onions. It is very, very difficult to beat. More recently, I also tried this recipe<\/a> for koshary, a close cousin of mujadara that includes some seared macaroni, and it was pretty wonderful, too. (In particular, you should try Francis\u2019s method for cooking rice. It\u2019s perfect.) But then I found something to beat them both, and its name is farro.<\/p>\n

Farro<\/a>, the Italian name for emmer wheat, has been cropping up all over the place lately, so you\u2019ve probably heard of it. If you haven\u2019t, it\u2019s a wheat grain – a kernel, really – and it looks a little bit like barley. Whole grains are making a big comeback right now – quinoa, bulgur, whathaveyou – but to tell you the truth, farro is the only one that I actually get excited about. It\u2019s chewy and slightly sweet and has a big, nutty flavor, and it can be used in salads, soups, riffs on risotto, and about a million other things. Which is where mujadara comes in. The other day, when I went to make mujadara, I was feeling a little frisky, and instead of pulling out the usual bag of rice, I decided to try using farro. It is a sad day, I realize, when a person comes to associate the words \u2018feeling frisky\u2019 with eating boiled wheat kernels, but I am not ashamed to admit it. It was fantastic<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Especially with some feta, crumbled or strewn in hunks, on top. And hot sauce, for dining companions named Brandon.<\/p>\n

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\nThough it may appear otherwise, this bowl is not wearing a halo over there on the left side – that\u2019s just an odd play of light on Brandon\u2019s jeans – but it might as well have been. This stuff is worthy of halos and more. The lentils are earthy and rich, and the farro is plump and toasty, and then there are the sweet, sticky onions, and those three alone would be fine, but with some tangy feta on top, it deserves a lot of superlatives. It\u2019s similar to mujadara, for sure, but it tastes entirely different from the usual rice-based specimen. It has a nuttier, more complex, more satisfying chew, and basically, I would like some right this minute, at 9:32 am, only an hour after breakfast. That pretty well sums up how I feel about it.<\/p>\n\n

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Recipe<\/div>\n

Warm Farro with French Lentils, Caramelized Onions, and Feta<\/h2>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n
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