The cafeteria at my office is decent, not by any means stellar but they have solid salads that I tend to gravitate towards over the hot stations. A few months ago, on a whim I decided to try the hot station that had stuffed mushrooms and I figured it was worth a shot. And I was blown away by how amazing it was – cheesy farro stuffed mushrooms that were cheesy goodness. I’d never tried farro before and decided I needed to recreate this dish at home.

Thanksgiving felt like the best time to attempt a brand new dish for the first time (jk, don’t do this); in my defense we were not hosting and it was just the hubs, I and the little human. Since it was my first foray into Farro, I decided to use the instant farro from Trader Joe’s that cooks in about 10 min on the stove top. I flavored it with sautéed spinach, onions and cheese and what resulted was a delicious meld of flavors dare I say surpassed what my office cafeteria created 🙂

Tips & Tricks

• Cook the farro in advance and allow it to cool so the cheese doesn’t clump up when you add it
• I like to add a little lemon zest to the farro as its cooling to amp up the lemon flavor
• I think this would be a great filling to adjust based on seasonal veggies
• After you precook the portobello mushrooms, use tongs to lift and drain the liquid so you don’t end up with soggy mushroom caps

Recipe Information

• Prep time: 20 min
• Cook time: 40 min
• Yield: 4 entrée servings

Ingredients

• 4 portobello mushrooms stemmed
• 1 jalapeño de-seeded and diced
• 1/2 onion diced
• 1 cup frozen chopped spinach
• 1/2 cup instant farro (Trader Joe’s)
• Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
• Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
• 1 tsp paprika
• Salt/Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Spray mushroom caps with cooking spray and arrange mushrooms gill-sides down and roast for 10 minutes or until mushrooms begin to soften
2. Cook farro according to package instruction, add lemon zest and allow to cool in a bowl
3. Sauté onions and jalapeños with paprika, salt and pepper for 5-7 minutes till soft . Add in frozen spinach and cook until spinach has thawed and is soft. Add in cooked farro and turn off heat
4. Drain excess liquid from mushrooms. Add shredded cheese to the farro/spinach mixture and fill the mushroom caps. Bake for 25 min until the filling browns on the top
5. Serve with your favorite salad or in our case all the carbs