Baked Farro with Lentils, Tomato and Mozzarella is the ultimate affordable, easy to whip up vegetarian meal that kids and adults love equally.
My husband is has eaten vegetarian and often vegan much of the past 20 years. Although he craves meat, fish and chicken, he always says how great he feels when eating a mostly plant based, vegetarian diet. He doesn’t cook often, but when he does it’s almost always delicious. A few months ago he whipped up a version of this Baked Farro with Lentils, Tomato and Mozzarella one night for dinner after a suggestion from our friend Paul, I couldn’t believe how easy and delicious it was! Not only was I blown away by it, but our kids said it was one of the best things they had ever had for dinner. I had to find out more about how it came to be. It turns out the original recipe was from the New York Times by Ali Slagle. Her version is made with feta, less vegetables and slightly dryer, and also totally delicious.
Baked Farro with Lentils, Tomato and Mozzarella is quickly becoming our new go-to meal especially on meatless Monday. I love using farro in recipes. It’s a high-protein, high-fiber ancient whole-grain wheat that looks similar to barley, but is a slight more oblong and larger grain. It retains a notable amount of chew when it gets cooked and toasting them like in this recipe adds to its nutty flavor. It’s the perfect base for this recipe.
This Baked Farro recipe is super filling too, thanks to the added lentils. Lentils are a great source of vegetarian protein, so we love using them when we’re making vegetarian recipes. They’re super good for you and not to mention add a great flavor, texture and you can keep them in your pantry for months. I also love this recipe because it makes enough for lots of leftovers, and when you’re cooking multiple times a day like a lot of us are, leftovers are the BEST.
Since my oldest decided to be vegetarian when he was younger, I’m always trying to come up with vegetarian recipes that are healthy and filling for him (and the whole family). I’m happy to have this Baked Farro recipe in our rotation of Vegetarian Chimichangas, Vegetarian Spring Rolls, Vegetarian Pho and Smoky Red Lentil Stew. This recipe could very easily be made vegan as well! Just use your favorite vegan cheese instead of mozzarella and you’re good to go.
Hopefully this recipe brings a little warmth and comfort to your family at the dinner table. It has for us and I’m so happy to share it with you. Let me know if you make it and what you think by tagging me on social media @weelicious.
Baked Farro with Lentils, Tomato and Mozzarella
Ingredients
- 1 cup farro
- 1/2 cup dried green or brown lentils
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ground black pepper, to taste
- 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes crushed with your hand (or diced tomatoes)
- 2 sprigs oregano, thyme, rosemary or basil, or ½ teaspoon dried (all optional)
- 1 zucchini, grated
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the farro in an 9×9 inch or 11×7 inch glass/ceramic baking dish (depending on how deep the dish is) and transfer to the oven to toast, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and scatter the lentils over the farro.
- While the farro toasts, make the tomato sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and juice, herb sprigs (if using), grated zucchini and 2 ½ cups water.
- Gently pour the tomato sauce over the lentils and farro and stir to combine. Bake, stirring halfway through, until the lentils and farro are tender, about 40 to 50 minutes. Add 3/4 cup water, stir, then top with grated mozzarella and bake an additional 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to turn golden.
- Remove the herb sprigs as you serve.
I had some lentils and half a bag of pearled farro kicking around and I’m really glad this recipe popped up when I googled those ingredients. I loved being able to toss in whatever odd bit of veg I needed to use up, in my case some frozen mixed vegetables. I added a bit of Seitenbacher broth powder for extra flavour, and used Daiya shreds to make it vegan. Super tasty and filling!
So happy you found this recipe! I love how you customized it to your needs too!
Could I use grated carrots in place of the zucchini? And can this dish be frozen?
Hi Anne! Great questions. You could absolutely use grated carrot in place of the zucchini. To freeze, I would recommend making the dish, allowing to cool then freeze it. Make sure it’s tightly covered to prevent freezer burn. When ready to eat: defrost, cover with foil and reheat in a 300°F oven for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.
Anyonevyry Trader Joe’s quick cooking farro in this recipe? That’s what I have on hand. Thanks!
Hi Lori! I’ve used that product before in this recipe and it worked out just fine. Let me know what you think!
We loved it. It’s so nice to have such a simple dish turn out feeling so satisfying! I also wasn’t able to fit it in an 8 x 8, switched it to an 11 x 7 and it just fit.
Glad you enjoyed!
Absolutely delicious! My husband has always claimed that he doesn’t like lentils, but this recipe made him change his mind. He went back for seconds!
I agree with the comment above. An 8 X 8 pan is too small. It was up to the rim. I had to put it on a cookie sheet to bake so that I did not have a disaster in my oven.
I’ve made this recipe several times now. It’s delicious, and everyone in the family likes it, but I recommend sizing up the size of the baking dish you use. It overflows an 8×8” pan and my 2.2 qt baking dish.
Do I see peas in the picture?
Do you need to soak lentils and farro overnight for sprouting? Or is it okay to do that first?
Hi Saline, no need to soak the lentils or farro before cooking for this recipe.
I have made this several times – what I love about it is I can put whatever veggies I have – tonight I put yellow pepper and spinach – delicious!
That’s a great idea! Glad you’ve been making it your own.
This was a hit!! There are only 5 recipes that my whole family will eat and now we have 6! Thank you so much
I wanted to make sure that the farro is uncooked? It doesn’t state but I assume it is uncooked to be toasted in the oven as well as the lentils which does say dried. I was just concerned with the amount of liquid in the recepe. Is it enough to cook both the farro and the lentils? So excited to try this!!
Hi there! Yes, the farro is uncooked.
We all loved this! So much flavor and a great way to use a grain we usually overlook. Mine was a big mess in the 8×8 though… too full. Do you think it would work okay in a bigger dish?
You can use a bigger dish if you find 8×8 is too small.
Will this recipe work with Trader Joe’s 10 minute farro?
Hi Lauren! Sorry to just be replying, but yes! I just recently used the 10 minute farro from TJs for this recipe since it was all I could find and it worked just fine!
This was absolutely delicious! I made it for dinner and it was an absolute hit. It is lighter than a pasta bake, but still has that satisfying, comforting taste. I will definitely be making this again soon and thank you so much for crafting this recipe!
I needed to size up the casserole dish – mine didn’t fit in the 8×8 and almost filled the a 2 qt. dish to the top. I can’t figure out anything I measured wrong!
It’s a big hit though!
Happy you enjoyed! My 8×8 dish is quite deep, so a larger dish may work better. Glad you figured it out! 🙂
This was amazingly delicious and I am so glad to have another recipe to throw together with things I typically have on hand. The roasting of the farro really adds so much flavor. My 6 year old commented that she and her sister both actually liked a new recipe — a miracle!!