After the heft of our dining-out experience on Thursday we decided on much lighter fare for Friday.

Sheet pan roasted vegetables over baked farro with nuoc cham

Baking the farro in a 9 x 9 inch glass baking dish is a simple but delicious way to cook farro.

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Oven baked farro

1 1/2 cups rinsed farro
2 1/3 cups boiling or very hot water
1 tsp salt or salt to your taste
olive oil spray or butter

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray 9×9″ glass baking dish thoroughly with olive oil spray or butter baking dish. To the dish add the farro, hot water, and salt. Cover tightly with foil. Bake one hour. Remove from oven and fluff making sure to loosen farro from sides and bottom of dish. Re-cover and let stand five minutes.

(This technique also works perfectly with brown rice.)

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At this point your oven is already hot so crank it up to 400F and cook a variety of oiled and salted vegetables on a sheet pan until tender and browned, about 20 minutes. I used carrots, red onion, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. To be honest my veggies look a little pale so I sould have left them in a little longer.

Serve the vegetables and farro with a dressing of your choice. The recipe I was sort of following suggested a ranch style dressing but I liked the flavor of nuoc cham with its spicy, umami flavor.

Close-up showing farro underneath vegetables