Recently, I had breakfast at Le Pain Quotidian with a friend and this was on the 'special' menu - farro warm cereal with toasted almonds and rasins (theirs was a little too sweet for me, but delicious none the less)... I had it and I couldn't stop thinking about it... it was SO delicious! So I have been trying to figure it out... and I think that I finally have... at first I tried to make it with almond milk, it wasn't so good, then I tried coconut milk, the kind that is in a carton - no, this didn't work either. THEN my husband bought coconut milk in the can and I thought... yes, this is what they are using. The first time I made it I put just a little bit of sugar in it because all of the other times it came out really bland, but you don't really need it with the coconut milk in a can. And don't even ask me about the calorie count, I'm not very good at that but it's so delicious you won't care either.
I think this 'coconut farro' is delicious as breakfast or desert. Farro is an intensely energizing grain, Italians say that the Romans used to eat it when they went off to fight because it had long term energy. Call me crazy but I feel a strengthening power when I eat farro in any form, so I try to use it whenever I can for family meals. And this is a great way to bring it into breakfast and the kids go wild for it! Now that it's summer I like to make this the night before so that I don't have the stove on for hours, but I think it would also be delicious served hot in the winter, farro is really a good grain for winter as it gives long term energy.
There are many ways that you can serve this like topping off with toasted almonds, coconut, blueberries, strawberries or just the way it is... the whole family will love this and you can be sure that you are giving them energy for the day!
recipe: Coconut Farro
1 cup rustic farro
1 can organic coconut milk - unsweetened
1 1/2 cups organic soy milk or rice milk or almond milk or whatever your milk choice! (I actually just fill up the cocnut milk can again and that's my measurement)
handful of rasins
(optional: a teaspoon of sugar for a sweeter treat)
put all ingredients into a large saucepan and put the flame on low, let it come to a boil and turn off and leave overnight, in the morning just bring to a boil again (check to see if you need more milk?) and turn off and let sit again. It's ready to eat any time now, if you want it hot you can eat it now or you can let it cool and for a desert serve cold and topped with fruit.
If you are cooking this all at once, I would cook on a super low flame (even using a flame tamer) for about 1 1/2 hours, but leave it sit and cool for about another hour so that it soaks up all the milk.
note: I would not use dairy milk if you are leaving it overnight, not sure that would work with dairy (I never use dairy so not sure...??)
