FARRO WITH ROASTED BROCCOLI
Although most of the world’s wheat consists of modern strains, a small number of older, ancestral wheats are still grown in smaller quantities. The most familiar is durum, which is used for making dry pasta. A few others you may be familiar with, if you’re food-obsessed, are einkorn, emmer and spelt. Farro in Italy is almost always emmer wheat, though you may also see einkorn or spelt sold under that name in the US. While they’re not quite the same botanically, they’re cooked similarly. The grain is often “pearled” or partially milled, like barley, to help it cook faster. This recipe calls for the pearled version of the grain; if you have unpearled you’ll simply need to double the cooking time.
Ingredients
1 cup pearled farro
3 cups water
pinch of salt
1 large head or 2 smaller heads broccoli
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
up to ½ cup soy milk
2 tbsp vegan or regular butter
Method
Heat your oven to 400 F.
Rinse the farro in a fine-mesh strainer, then dump it into a medium-sized saucepan. Add the water and salt, and bring it to a low boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender. Remove from the heat and drain any excess water that remains. Keep warm.
While the farro cooks peel the stringy skin from the broccoli stems with a paring knife, but don’t remove the stems from the head. Leave thin heads of broccoli intact, and cut thicker ones lengthwise into halves or quarters. Toss with the olive oil and arrange in a heatproof skillet or baking dish, or on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Roast for approximately 15 minutes, or until just tender (the actual timing will vary, depending on the size of the broccoli). Remove from the oven and set aside.
When the broccoli is cool enough to handle, set aside a few florets for garnish. Dice about ½ cup of the stems, and set those aside as well. Transfer the remainder of the broccoli to the jar of a blender.
Process the broccoli, adding just enough soy milk to help it become a paste rather than a puree. Add the butter, then taste it and adjust the seasoning with additional salt if necessary.
Stir the broccoli mixture into the farro until they’re well combined, then stir in the diced stems. Portion the farro onto serving plates, and garnish with the reserved florets. Serve with pan-basted oyster mushrooms or other savory entrees.
