Healthy Grain Bowl

This is the ultimate healthy grain bowl, packed with vibrant ingredients that will satisfy every craving. Recipe as follows:

Ingredients:

For the Farro:
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 ½ cups farro
1 bay leaf
4 thyme sprigs
Kosher salt, to taste 
2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Salmon:
2 lemons, juiced and zested
1 orange, juiced and zested 
1 tablespoon honey  
½ cup extra virgin olive oil 
1 teaspoon za’atar
1 teaspoon sumac
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
2 (8 ounce) salmon filets  

For the Herby Yogurt:
½ cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped dill
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1 lemon, zested and juiced
½ teaspoon honey
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

For Assembly and Garnish:
½ small bunch mint, finely chopped
½ small bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
¼ small bunch dill, finely chopped 
2 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced
½ cup crumbled feta cheese 
Pomegranate seeds, for garnish 
Toasted pistachios, for garnish
Avocado, for garnish 
Lemon zest, for garnish
Orange zest, for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place an oven rack in the second position below the heating element.
2. In a small spouted measuring cup, add the lemon zest and juice, the orange zest and juice, honey, olive oil, sumac, za’atar, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. 
3. Add the marinade to an 8×8 or 9×9 pan, then add the salmon filets, skin side up to the pan. Cover with plastic wrap.
4. Transfer to the refrigerator and marinate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.
5. Line a sheet tray with a thin tea towel or paper towels. Set aside.
6. Add the chicken stock to a large saucepan, bring to a boil and season with salt. Add the farro to a fine mesh strainer or colander and rinse to clean off any excess starch.
7. Then add the farro, bay leaf, and thyme and cook according to package directions. Once the farro is done cooking, remove it with a spider or a large slotted spoon onto the prepared sheet tray.
8. Dry the farro as much as possible with the tea towel or paper towels, then transfer half of it to another sheet tray. Drizzle the olive oil over the farro, season with salt, then bake for 15-20 minutes, or until deeper brown and crunchy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Keep the oven on.
9. Place a wire rack on top of a sheet tray. Add the salmon filets, skin side down, to the wire rack. Using a pastry brush or spoon, brush 2 tablespoons of the marinade onto each filet, then season with salt.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then increase the oven heat to broil and broil for 3-5 minutes, or until the salmon is golden brown and the internal temperature of the salmon reaches 135°F for tender and flakey meat.
11. Remove the salmon from the oven and allow to cool on the sheet tray until ready to plate.
12. In a small mixing bowl, add the yogurt, herbs, lemon zest and juice, salt, and pepper and mix well to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use.
13. In another small mixing bowl, add the cooled, boiled farro and the crunchy farro. Toss gently to combine, then divide between two bowls.
14. Using a fish spatula, gently slide the spatula in between the salmon skin and the flesh. It should separate easily, allowing you to transfer the skinned salmon directly to the bowl.
15. Add the salmon to the bowl, then add the herbs, cucumbers, pomegranate seeds, feta cheese, toasted pistachios and avocado around the bowl. Finish with additional olive oil, if desired. Serve immediately.

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A grain bowl is my go to dish when I’m
feeling like eating a little bit of everything. This one has that perfect balance
of flavor, color, texture, and temperature,
and that makes it really fun to eat. take the longest here. One orange and two
lemons. And I’m always a big fan of getting out all
of that zest anytime I use citrus. Just remember, if you’re going to use the
zest off citrus, try to make sure that they’re organic so you
don’t have all these chemicals in the peel. I’m going to start off here by getting as
much of that zest as I can, and then I’ll jump right over to our lemons
and do the exact same thing. Another simple tip that I have for getting
zest off of any citrus is trying to get nice, firm citrus, if it’s a little bit on the
unripe side, makes it a lot easier to take off the zest
than if it’s a little bit older, more ripe, and softer. One of the other amazing things about Zesting
your citrus is that it makes the whole room smell good, because all these oils are
released out of the the lemons, the limes, the limes,
the oranges, when you’re doing it. So once we have all that nice lemon and orange zest. Rub it on my hand. We’re also going to use the juice. Two
lemons, one orange and into the juicer they go. This kind of reminds me,
when I was a kid, I had a really good lemonade stand. I served so much more than
just lemonade. We had all sorts of ice cream. I made these nice berry toppings is the best. So right here is the start of our marinade.
We have our juice. We have our zest. Next we have this amazing spice called sumac. It’s almost like a tart,
lightly citrusy spice. It’s fantastic. Then a nice pinch of za’atar, which is basically just a blend of sesame
seeds and a few different dried herbs. After that, a generous little pour of honey. What that’s going to do is give a bit of
sweetness to cut down on all the acidity that we added from the citrus. But more importantly,
it’s also going to help with a bit of that caramelization when we go to cook the salmon.
And that’s what gives us that really good flavor. And to finish off our beautiful
marinade, I’ll do just a touch of olive oil,
a nice pinch of salt, maybe a little bit more. You always got to be
generous with the salt and then just a bit of fresh cracked pepper. Then just whisk this
up. The key here is to make sure we get
everything nice and fully mixed and combined. Especially that honey in there because it
tends to stick to the bottom of the bowl. And then to finish off our salmon marination
here, I will gently and carefully place both of our
beautiful salmon fillets into this container here. And then to make sure I get nice full
coverage, I’m going to spoon that marinade all across
my salmon. And as this sits in the fridge it’s going to
give us this beautiful super flavorful salmon. If you want you can also just dump
the marinade all over the salmon to start with. But I like going a little bit slower
and more careful. And the last thing we’ll do before this goes
in the fridge is cover it up with a bit of plastic wrap so that everything stays nice
and cozy in here. And off it goes. That’ll just be in there for
30 minutes, not too long, because there’s so much citrus
that we don’t want it to cook and become a ceviche. Now, before I forget,
the next step here is to preheat your oven to about 425 Fahrenheit. And then for the grain
that we’re going to be cooking for our grain bowl, I’ll be using farro,
which you can think of sort of like rice, but each grain is a bit larger and a little
bit chewier. But since it is a bit similar to rice,
we have to first rinse off some of that extra starch that’s going to be on the outside. The simple reason that you’re supposed to
wash off things like farro and rice before cooking is to make sure that all that extra
starch that’s around it doesn’t form this extra kind of sticky glue. Once you go to cook it,
but you really don’t have to wash farro as long as you have to rinse rice. It just doesn’t have quite as much starch
around it. So once our farro is nice and clean, I’m going to grab some chicken stock
because cooking it in water works, but… it’s a little bit boring. I find it a lot more fun and flavorful to
cook any grain in something like a chicken stock, which has so much more flavor. And instead of hydrating the grain with
water, which tastes like nothing, you’re filling it up with all that goodness
that comes from your chicken stock. Into that chicken stock for a bit of extra flavor. I’ll put a few sprigs of thyme and just a
couple leaves of bay leaf, and what that’s going to do is give extra
flavor when our farro boils in there. And ultimately we’ll get a much more
delicious farro. While that’s coming to a boil,
I’ll strain off my farro. We’ll give it one last little spin to make
sure we get off all that extra starchy water. I’m also going to add in just a little extra
pinch of salt. My chicken stock already does have some,
but just like when you’re cooking pasta, it’s nice to have a bit extra. And once that comes to a nice,
gentle boil, I’ll go ahead and carefully pour in my farro. And anytime I add something like
this pasta, rice, farro, whatever it is,
I always give it a nice quick stir to make sure nothing sticks together once it’s in the
pot and then lid goes on. And if you watch carefully,
you’ll see it’ll quickly come back to a boil once again, at which point you can turn down
the heat to a nice low simmer. While our farro cooks,
I’m going to make a nice herby yogurt. And to do that, I’ll start off with a bit of
dill, which I’m just going to carefully shave onto
my cutting board with my knife. And remember, some of these herbs will be
saved for our actual bowl itself, kind of to mix in with the farro and the
other ingredients. And then part of it here will be mixed into
that nice creamy yogurt that goes at the base of our final dish. What I’m doing right here
has always been my favorite method for picking off dill, and it’s different for
every herb. But this just works really,
really well. Nice. Technically, all of these stems are
still perfectly edible, but I just like to take the extra minute here
and sort through to make sure that we only have that nice, soft,
delicate dill. So I’ll take a little bit off to the side for
my yogurt, and the rest I’ll scoop up and save for
later. Next up, I’ll move on to my fresh mint. To me, herbs are just one of those things
that if you can get them fresh as opposed to those dried herbs, it can make any dish so
much better. My grandma grows lots and lots of mint every
summer. So anytime I smell mint now,
that’s what I think of. Now for the final dish. I want to save a few
full mint leaves so I can kind of tear them up and toss them with that farro at the end. But for the yogurt, it doesn’t matter too
much as long as I slice it nice and fine and kind of open up the mint. So I’m just going to roll it up and chop it
nice and fine here. I have such a sharp knife that I’m not going
to bruise the mint by chopping it like this. So this is going to be perfect for the final
dish. And the last of our three herbs that we’ll
use is this parsley, which just like the dill,
I’m just going to slice off very carefully with all my fingers tucked in. Just quick removal of all those stems. I’m actually purposefully not going to chop
it as fine as I did my mint that way. As you can see between the two here,
they each have a different size and a different texture. And then we have a really
nice spread of herbs for our finished bowl. And then for our yogurt,
we have some chopped parsley, some chopped mint and some chopped dill. A little extra dill because I love dill. And
then into our bowl with just a bit of our yogurt. Doesn’t really matter how much
however much you want. And then one more lemon. Once again, I’ll do a little bit of zest,
then just a touch of lemon juice to brighten it up, and I’ll finish with a nice sprinkle
of salt and just a bit of fresh cracked pepper. If you’re making this at home and you
feel like adding something more to this yogurt, whatever it may be,
honey, if you want it a little bit sweeter or a different kind of citrus,
you could use orange or lime or just some other spice that you love. You should definitely do that and it’ll be
delicious. Quick taste. I’m gonna do another small
squeeze of lemon, tiny bit more pepper,
and even just a tiny sprinkle of honey just for fun. And our yogurt,
which will be the base of our farro bowl, can go in the fridge until it’s ready. Our farro
has been cooking now for about 12, 13 minutes. And it’s just right there between al dente
and perfectly cooked. Which means I’m gonna take it off the heat,
strain it off. And just so I don’t forget,
I’ll pick out all those extra herbs, the bay leaves and the little sprigs of
thyme. And then with half of this farro, I’m going to put it into a bowl. Right now it’s nice and chewy,
almost like an al dente pasta. And that’ll be one part of the texture that
we get. And just so it doesn’t stick together, I’ll hit it with a touch of olive
oil and a nice sprinkle of salt just to season it one more time. And this all set off to the side. And now with the other half of our farro. This is one of my favorite parts of the whole
recipe. I’m going to add it to a sheet tray with some
paper towels to dry it off, spread it all out, and pat it super dry just
like this. If it sticks to your kitchen towel or paper
towel, don’t panic. You can gently tap it off really easily just like this. I like to give it a good shake to make sure
everything is evenly spaced, and then we’ll hit it with a nice light drizzle of olive oil
and another nice sprinkle of salt. Make sure you’re salting from super high up
like this so it spreads evenly. And this will go into the oven at 425
Fahrenheit or a nice high temp to get nice and crispy. What we’re doing here is crisping
up half our farro and then leaving half of it nice and chewy. And that gives us two totally
different textures, which is such a simple step. While that farro is toasting,
I’m also going to toast off some pistachios. This adds another layer of complexity,
of texture, of flavor. And that’s what I love about this
dish. Whenever I’m toasting any kind of nut or spice, I try to stay there the whole time
because it doesn’t take long and they’re really easy to burn. And the fun thing here
is that if you close your eyes, that’s the sound of when they’re done. And now this is part of our garnish. And I have a very simple,
special way to open them if you’ve never seen it before. You’ll notice I have a second
cutting board on top of my regular cutting board here. And that’s because pomegranates
stain anything and everything so easily. So I like to do this on a cutting board that
I know I can throw in the dishwasher after. So to open it up, I start by scoring the
edges of the whole pomegranate, and then I’ll wiggle my knife right in
between there and move it back and forth, and then just listen. I never,
ever buy pomegranate seeds that have already been opened. Just put in the extra 2
or 3 minutes of work and open it up, and you get all these amazing little rubies. Look at this. I’ve opened my pomegranate into
a few different sections. I’m going to move this off to the side. Don’t forget about your farro. Shake my farro one more time,
since I have my wooden spoon that I’m about to use for my pomegranate. I will move my farro around mid cook just to
make sure everything gets nice and evenly browned. Always just remember when you’re
cooking, everybody’s oven is different. To really
become a great cook, you need to eventually forget about cook
times. Okay, one more cook and these are ready. Then a big bowl of water. And then with my wooden spoon,
I kind of want to cradle the pomegranate and just whack it. And all those seeds should
come off without being broken. Point this away from you when you do it,
and make sure you have a big bowl or a big pot, because otherwise your kitchen will be
splattered red. And once you’re done,
it should be totally clean. But the best part… All those extra little
white bits that you don’t want are going to float to the top. All your seeds are going to
sink to the bottom. Now, at this point, just skim off all those
extra white bits. You don’t want these. They’re very bitter.
I’ll give it one more quick stir to make sure all those pieces that we don’t want will
float right to the top. Farro should be done. Ooh that sizzle. Let’s check our salmon out. So as you can see, we have a tiny bit of that
white coloring on our salmon. It’s cooked a little bit from the lemon and
the orange juice but not much. It’s only been in the fridge for about a half an hour,
which is just enough time to push some of that flavor into the salmon. I’m actually going to wipe off some of that
extra citrus zest, so not too much of it burns. And then I’ll place it skin side down onto
our baking tray. Part of me feels so sad about wiping off some
of that citrus zest, but we already got more than enough flavor in
this salmon. And after just one more tiny drizzle of olive
oil. The salmon will go into the oven for about 10
to 15 minutes, and we’ll finish it off later with a broil to
get a nice golden brown top. The very last thing we have to prep before
our salmon comes out are cucumbers. You can slice these by hand if you want,
but I’m going to use a mandolin just to get nice, even perfect slices. If you’re going to use a mandolin at home,
though, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve cooked. Make sure you use the handguard for
safety. To be honest, I just lost mine,
so I’m just stopping really early right now. And once our cucumbers are done,
I’ll immediately throw them into a bowl and toss them with just a bit of salt to bring
out all that delicious flavor. Switch the oven to broil. And now I’ll pull the salmon to the top rack
to know when your salmon is done. It should be about 135 Fahrenheit at an
internal temp, but just please make sure not to overcook
your salmon, because if you do, it’s just dry and kind of
sad. Once that salmon has a nice golden top,
we can pull it out. That part right there is really where you’re
going to get all that super nice flavor. But for just a moment, I’ll rest the salmon off
to the side and to finish up and plate our dish, I will take our toasted farro,
then mix that in and combine it with our nice fresh, chewy farro. And what we have right
here is half boiled farro and half crispy farro. To finally plate our dish,
I will put a few nice swirls of yogurt around the base of our plate. That’s going to just give some buttery
creaminess to every bite. Then we’ll take our farro and dump in that 50
over 50 blend of crispy and boiled farro. I’m making a nice big portion here. I’m hungry, and I’m going to leave a spot
here for our salmon. And then for my salmon. I don’t want the
skin, so I’m going to go along the bottom with a
thin fish spatula. And it should perfectly separate the fish
from the skin here. There’s our skin, there’s our fish. And I’ll
place this just off center of my plate, and then I’ll place down my dill first,
then my chopped up parsley. I’ll put in the corner over here. At this point, though,
you can really plate your dish however you want. And then I always just love to tear my
mint apart by hand, so I’ll place that over here. Also leaving a few whole mint leaves here and
there just to keep things interesting and give some extra texture. And then this step here is optional. But if
you love avocado, which I do, you can place a bit of that
nicely fanned out on the edge of your plate. And now I’ve got a nice whole block of feta,
which I’ll just gently crumble into the center of my plate. Since it’s a little salty
and creamy, that’ll actually work super well with our
yogurt. Then a few of those toasted pistachios,
which I’ll place over by the mint, and a few more just in the corners. Then some of my nice cucumber slices over on
the edge here. I love cucumber, especially in a nice bowl
like this. So I’m going to put a little bit extra in
mine. And then pomegranate seeds look really good
anywhere. So I’m just going to sprinkle those kind of all around my bowl to fill in any
cracks and spaces to finish the whole bowl off. I’ll do one final squeeze of lemon and
one last drizzle of olive oil over the salmon. And that, my friends,
is the ultimate grain bowl. This is a grain bowl that I love because it’s
packed with so much flavor, so much color, so many different textures. And the hardest part for me is actually
knowing where to start first. I like to get a little piece of everything. I’m going to gather it all up into the
center. There we go.