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I sometimes find that healthy eating advice skips past me. It sounds good, but it’s just too far out of my groove to actually do anything about. That’s how I felt several years ago when I first learned how incredibly nutritious whole grains are and what a powerful effect they have on our bodies. “Eat more whole grains” sounded like great advice, but I just didn’t have the time to get acquainted with quinoa and millet and the like, and when I don’t know an ingredient well, odds are it won’t be showing up at my table on a Tuesday night.

But since then, thanks to a few strategic assignments, I have had the chance to experiment with several different types of whole grains and now I stock my pantry with everything from bulgur to wheatberries. Once I started cooking with different whole grains I found that the taste, texture and even cooking methods weren’t daunting at all; what had held me back from whole grains for so long was that they simply hadn’t been in my comfort zone.

So  for anyone who desires to get over the whole grain hump, I’ll occasionally be featuring one at a time in a Nibble to Noodle. The idea is not to overwhelm you with “eat more whole grains” advice (although if you’d like to learn more about why they’re so dang good for you, you can read “Gotta Get Your Grains“), but rather to get you acquainted grain by grain–with how they look, how to cook them, how they taste, how you can use them–so that they’ll stick to your radar when “what’s for dinner?” gets asked. This week, we’ll start with farro.

Farro

Farro is an ancient strain of emmer wheat (think of it as a wheat varietal, like a chardonnay or pinot noir is to wine) that was originally domesticated in the Near East millennia ago, but has recently become popular on American menus.

What it Looks Like: Farro–specifically ‘semi-pearled’ or ‘semi-perlato’ farro, which has been lightly polished–looks a bit like barley with a dusty coating.

What it Tastes Like: Farro has a lovely, toasted nut flavor to it and a luscious, meaty chew that makes it one of my favorite grains in the kitchen.

How to Cook it: Cook farro in a 1:2 ratio of farro to water. Bring the water (or stock or tomato juice or whatever liquid you choose) to a boil, add the farro and cover. Reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, until kernels are plump and tender and liquid is absorbed.

How to Use it: I like to use farro as a replacement for pasta in cold salads, as a hearty side dish, or—my favorite—as a stand-in for Arborio rice in a farro risotto. Farro keeps extremely well with minimal clumping when cool, which makes it a great candidate for leftovers. Try it as a base for a salad or an addition to soup.

Additional Notes: While farro used to be peasant food—it was an official ration for Roman legions—nowadays it’s quite pricy. But its texture is so substantial that I find it needs little or no meat to round out a meal. Try thinking of the farro itself as the main focus of the dish, adding meat only for a hit of flavor; like a big mound of shallot-studded farro topped with thin slices of steak or chicken. Of course you can always beef up the whole plate with tasty seasonal veggies as with the eggplant stacks below. Combinations like these end up being both healthy and quite economical.