There's a new Grain in town!

You may have heard of it recently or seen the bag on the shelf at Costco....it's called Farro!  And it's delicious and high in fiber and protein and is an awesome complex carbohydrate!  My mother-in-law made some for us while I was pregnant last year and I was hooked! 1 problem-our Costco didn't sell it!  Blast!  Once we were able to find it we found all sorts of uses-but it's pricy- like $13 for a small bag that lasted us (a hungry family of 6) maybe 3 uses!  Nope-not in the budget!  We looked on the back of the bag of this mysterious all amazing wonder grain and the ingredients.....italian rolled WHEAT!!!  Wait-I have that!  My genius friend Mindi experimented and I now make farro out of red whole wheat we have stored in 25lb buckets down in the food storage room. 

1st step-in the words of the hot kid from brooklyn in "Newsies" -SOAK EM! 

Put it into your crock pot or a big bowl and cover with about an inch and a half of water and let them sit covered for 12-24 hours (you don't turn the crock pot on).  You can soak as many as you want and store them in your family's needed quantity in ziplocs in the freezer.  Then you have it ready to pull out and boil and it'll taste fresh but be quick to make!

After it's soaked, drain and either measure into your freezer bags or put it in a pot of water to boil.  It boils like pasta would so be sure you have a good couple inch coverage of water.  You can salt your water or all a little chicken bouillon for added flavor.  Boil for about 3-5 minutes-see I told you...Quick!

Drain and rinse with cold water to get excess starch off.

Now its ready to eat!  One of my favorite recipes is just a simple fresh farro (or red wheat) salad.  I chop up cucumber, tomatoes, and a little red onion and use about 1T olive oil, a little drizzle of Lemon Juice (fresh is always better but I didn't have one) and some salt and pepper.  Balsamic vinegar is also really good if you like that.

Here's my super healthy, delicious, filling salad for lunch!

Farro is often used in soups or as a plain side instead of rice.  We love it with the gravy from our sunday crock pot roast.  Be creative and Enjoy!

STATS:

Better-I can't say its better than store bought farro because it's basically the same, but both are amazing so...*check*

Heathier-In 1/4c serving of the red wheat farro there are 5g protein and 11g fiber!  For sure healthy! *check*

Cheaper- Definitely cheaper!  You can buy red wheat in bulk many places and it stores for 30 years in air tight buckets. *check*