Farro Risotto with MORELS!

Morels! It's still early in their short season up here in Minnesota, but today I went with my friend Anna to her parents' woods to hunt for morels, and we found some! Not a lot, but enough to make some amazing farro risotto. It was so good. This was actually the first time I've eaten a morel, and it kind of blew my mind.

Farro Risotto with Morels

- 1 C farro
- 1 onion, diced (we used half a red and half a yellow - shallots might have been even better)
- Several cloves garlic, minced
- 2/3 C dry red wine
- A few tablespoons olive oil and/or earth balance, divided between two 10" or so saute pans
- 1/2 C - 1 C morel mushrooms, rinsed and chopped
- 1/3 C oyster mushrooms (I just had some I really needed to use up)
- 2 C vegetable broth
- Fresh or dried thyme, oregano, chives, or other herbs to taste - we used dried thyme and fresh chives and oregano, because that's what we had
- A little bit of dried chopped chanterelle or other mushrooms dissolved in your hot vegetable broth (I just had these from some fall picking, and thought why not make it as wild-mushroomy as possible. They added a lot.)
- 8 or so kale leaves, chopped with tough stems saved for later
- 2 T or so nutritional yeast
- Truffle oil

Here's a not very good picture of farro:


1. Soak the farro in water for 20 min, then drain and rinse
2. Simmer the farro in water with a bit of olive oil for 20 min, then drain and rinse
3. Heat a couple T of the olive oil/earth balance (I recommend a mixture) in one nonstick wide, shallow pan
4. Add the diced onion and minced garlic to the pan, stir on medium-low for a few minutes with a little salt and pepper
5. If using dried mushrooms, heat veggie broth and add them to rehydrate
6. In second pan, heat another T or so of oil/EB and when hot, add chopped morels (and oysters, if using) and season with salt and pepper
7. Cook the mushrooms on medium or so heat until they're a little browned and smell amazing
8. When the onions are cooked, add the farro and wine, cooking and stirring on medium until almost all the liquid is gone.
9. Add the broth one cup at a time when the liquid is almost gone, stirring frequently. Add the kale at this point too.
10. When the mushrooms are cooked, add them to the risotto as soon as possible so their flavor is infused into the whole dish.
11. When the second cup of broth is almost absorbed, add the nutritional yeast and take it off the heat.
12. Drizzle with truffle oil to make it an over the top intense four-mushroom experience.



This isn't like a traditional arborio rice risotto - the farro doesn't make a creamy starchy sauce while you stir it, but it does get tender and delicious. It's a chewy, hearty grain that goes incredibly well with earthy, rich mushrooms, red wine, and kale. It was like eating a forest (in a good way).

One more unnecessary mushroom shot. Cute, right?



We ate this with a mixed green salad with carrots, oregano, and a pumpkin seed oil/red wine vinaigrette. Also really good.



I'm already so excited to go morel hunting again next weekend - I want enough to cook some and dry a lot. We'll see!