Green Veggie Pilaf

My favorite way to eat this pilaf is as a main dish, topped with an oven baked salmon filet.

This veggie pilaf uses an ancient cereal grain called farro that has a unique nutty flavor and chewy texture. You can buy farro at your local health food grocery story. Otherwise you can make this dish with pearled barley or brown rice. Pearled barley will take about the same amount of time to cook, brown rice will require an extra 15 minutes cooking time.

Hearty greens are dark leafy greens that can stand up to some heat, e.g. spinach. My favorite mix of hearty greens is “Super Greens” by Organic Girl. It is a mixture of baby red chard, baby tat soi, baby spinach, baby green swiss chard and baby arugula.

Makes: 1 main / 2 side dishes

Preparation time: 10m
Cooking time: 10m
Total time: 40m

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup farro
  • 1 zucchini (chopped into 1/2" thick half moons)
  • 5 asparagus spears (chopped into 1" segments)
  • 1/2 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
  • 1/2 cup chopped cauliflower (bite-sized pieces)
  • 1/2 cup chopped broccoli (bite-sized pieces)
  • 1 lemon (optional)
  • 1 cup hearty greens (arugula/chard/collard greens/kale/spinach/etc)
  • 4 cups low-sodium vegetable stock
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Equipment: medium saucepan

Instructions:

  1. Put the farro and vegetable stock into a medium-sized sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
  2. At the end of the 15 minutes carefully add the prepared zucchini, asparagus, peas, cauliflower and broccoli to the farro and simmer over medium heat for an additional 10 minutes.
  3. Drain off any excess liquid, season to taste with salt and pepper and mix in the hearty greens. If you are using the lemon juice, cut open the lemon and squeeze some juice onto it now, or garnish with lemon wedge and allow everyone to use as much as they like. I use about 1/2 lemon for 2 main dish servings.