I made the decision to not go grocery shopping for the rest of the week so I can completely empty out and unplug the fridge while we are on our adventures. Why? Well if I unplug it, I won't have to de-ice it when we get back and that would be great. Plus why use electricity when were are not here to enjoy it? But yesterday I realized, we don't really keep a lot of food in the fridge. No that's not true. When I go grocery shopping, I buy a shit ton of veggies. like 5 lbs of greens 10 lbs of carrots, and 5 lbs more of other veggies... and it's gone within 4 to 5 days. So yesterday when I opened the fridge, it was basically already empty besides the few condiments that I keep in there like mustard, soy sauce and pickle juice (all of which can be left out of the fridge when we are gone). What I did have were a few mushrooms. and a little bit of spinach. It was really sad. So I went grocery shopping. A big, fill the fridge with tons of veggies shop. And I will probably will have to do it one more time before we leave so I am going to stop worrying about emptying the fridge. It empties out pretty fast already.
What can I say, I like me some veggies.
Putting the grocery hall away, the last of the mushrooms and the spinach came out first to be consumed. I have a bunch of onions that I need actually do need to be eaten before we leave and it close to dinner time.. So I grab that stuff and some farro. Yup, farro, a kinda hardy wheat grain that all the cool kids are eating right now. I figured that I should be a cool kid too and make a farro bowl with those veggies. Roasted stuff tossed with balsamic vinegar and cooked farro, served in a pretty bowl. So good. so cool.
What do you think of farro? I am curious because I am totally into it (me being a cool kid) But the mr, not so much. I though for sure he would love it, but no. He said it was too chewy and too seedy and just not great. I think that maybe if he wasn't a cranker butt last night that he might have actually liked it, but whatever. You win some you lose some. I consider this a win cause I get to eat it all myself. Like all the cool kids.
The stuff. A onion, a bunch of crimini mushrooms, and a few handfuls of baby spinach. And we also have some farro, balsamic vinegar, water salt, pepper, ans a bit of olive oil.
Get the farro going by dumping it into a pot with water ans a pinch of salt and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, stick a lid on it and turn heat down to low and let it simmer.
Now chop up the onion and mushrooms and toss in to a oven safe skillet or baking sheet with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt ans pepper
Stick into the oven to roast.
After a good 20-25minutes of so, the mushroom onion mixture is all nice and roasted. Remove from the oven for a sec, dump in some balsamic vinegar, mix to coast everything and stick the skillet back into the oven for few more minutes until all the liquid has absorbed and the vinegar starts to caramelized. (but not burn)
Remove it again from the oven and now toss in the spinach.
And the farro should be done by now too(It should be soft but still a bit chewy.) If there is any extra liquid left in the pot, just strain it out.
Then mix he cooked farro into the roasted stuff.
Serve into a bow with a little more vinegar if you want and pepper. Lots of cracker pepper.
Now eat it and serve some to your boyfriend who says he doesn't like it, then eat his too!
Happy day to you
-C
Farro with Balsamic Roasted Mushrooms Onions and Spinach
serves 2
- 1 cup dried farro
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1 medium onion
- 6-7 crimini mushrooms
- 2 big handfuls of baby spinach
- 4-5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
Preheat oven to 400
Combine the water ans farro into a pot, sprinkle in a pinch of salt and place on the stove top on high heat. Bring to a boil then place a lid on pot ans turn heat to low. Let farro simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender but still slightly chewy.
Once you have the farro on the stove, chop the onion into 1/2 inch chunks and dice the mushrooms into smaller sized pieces. Place on a baking sheet or cast iron skillet, toss with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place into oven and roast for about 20 minutes or until the mushrooms and onion are nicely browned and yummy looking. Remove from oven and mix in the balsamic vinegar. Place back into over for another 6-8 minutes or until all the vinegar has been absorbed. Take back out of oven and mix together with the spinach and the cooked farro.(If farro is cooked but there is still liquid left, just strain it out.)
Serve with a cracked pepper and a splash more of vinegar if your feelin it.
Also tastes great at room temperature of cold out of the fridge.