One Pot Farro

All three plates are eerily similar and mostly represent the same ideas. They all show that vegetables should make up most of the plate. Protein also takes up a large portion of each of the three plates. Lastly they all encourage people to get a good amount of fruit in their meal. One difference I found was that My Plate chose to put grains instead of whole grains. Also My plate decided that the milk was more important to have than water which is pretty odd. Lastly, they also decided that there is no place for fats and oils. Throughout this process I have noticed that My Plate has done a very insignificant job of representing what a meal would actually look like. They did not go into any specifics or any details at all. The healthy eating plate seems like the best one based on variety and attention to detail. I also liked that they mentioned sugar.

Do we need a helping of dairy in every meal?

One Pot Farro

My version of the recipe--

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 fennel bulb, chopped
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/4 cups farro
• 2 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• squeeze of fresh lemon juice

1. Cut 1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces, 1 fennel bulb, chopped
2. In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the fennel, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Saute for 5-7 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften.

3.  Add the farro and stir to coat. 

4. Slowly pour in the vegetable or chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and allow the farro to cook over a slow simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Add the asparagus, peas, remaining half teaspoon of salt, and pepper.  Cook until both the farro and asparagus are tender, about 10 more minutes. Grate parm

6. Remove from heat and stir in parmesan and a squeeze of lemon.  Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Serve warm with another scattering of grated parmesan on top.

I love this recipe and make it often. It does not take a lot of effort and only uses one pot, so I don’t have to do much cleaning. Normally I add protein, but I was not terribly hungry.

I am choosing the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate because I think it best represents what a complete meal looks like. My meal covered the whole plate besides fruit and protein. The farro is grain in the dish. The asparagus and peas represents the veggies.I normally add chicken to the dish but was not feeling up to it today. There was a little bit of cheese if that counts. To cover the whole plate I would have some fruit for dessert.