Creamy Garlic Farro

Farro is a grain similar to barley. It lends itself well to cold salads, but is also amazing when coated in a light garlic cream sauce such as in this recipe. Make it with chicken, or use beans to make it vegetarian friendly!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 30

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 4

Ingredients

1 cup dry farro
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon about 6 cloves minced garlic
1 15 ounce can chicken or vegetable broth
¼ cup water
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 Tablespoons half and half or heavy cream
½ cup chopped spinach if using frozen, thaw and drain it first
1 cup diced cooked chicken OR cooked white beans optional

Instructions

Rinse farro well and set aside.
Melt butter in a medium sized pot over medium heat.
Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute until fragrant, then add in farro and stir until coated in the butter.
Add in broth, water, salt and thyme and bring to a boil.
Cover, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 25-30 minutes until almost all the liquid is absorbed.
Stir in half and half, spinach and chicken or beans and cook until spinach is wilted and protein is heated through.

Notes

This can also be made with rice. If using rice, make the following adjustments: 1 cup rice, 1 3/4 cups broth, NO water.

Keyword farro, vegetarian friendly

Can’t get enough garlic? Try Roasted Garlic Soup!

Obligatory Fictional Backstory

I find it hilarious that I love garlic so much since I am married to a vampire. No, seriously. He hates sunlight, sleeps flat on his back with his hands folded over his chest and is super pale. And I’m anemic. It all adds up. When he was a teenager his younger brothers had their friends convinced that he was a real vampire because he worked nights and his room was in the basement and he has always slept on his back with his hands folded, and once he answered the door when one of the kids came over and the kid screamed and ran away. Oddly enough he actually likes garlic too but he prefers onions.

Real Talk

Gotta brag a little bit…the pumpkin in the picture came from my garden! Previously I’ve had the thumb of death and haven’t been able to grow a single thing. This year I got 4 pumpkins and 8,293 pounds of tomatoes.

Farro is a grain that’s kind of similar in texture to barley. Hubby said it looked like oatmeal…but it doesn’t taste like oatmeal I promise! This recipe is also great with rice, just check the notes for the adjustments. I had been looking for something a little different though so I decided to go with garlic farro instead of garlic rice when developing this recipe.

I know this sounds like a lot of garlic, but just trust me on this. If you have followed my blog for any length of time you probably have figured out that I love garlic. My husband once said if I was going to leave him it would be for a giant sentient bulb of garlic. I recently found this tweet that speaks to me: