Easy Farro Chili
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Prep this Easy Farro Chili recipe and have your slow cooker do the rest! Filled with vegetables and farro, it’s a delicious, filling, vegetarian chili recipe that you’ll want to make again and again.
Two words: FARRO. CHILI. Have you tried it? I feel like farro is highly underrated, but I love it so so much so today we’re celebrating it. Rice and quinoa get all the love, but farro is the perfect grain to add to your next batch of chili. If you’ve never tried farro, I’d say it tastes most similar to brown rice: not a ton of flavor on its own but can easily be paired with practically anything.
VEGETARIAN CHILI WITH FARRO
Lately, I’ve been into farro as a side dish, but it’s also perfect in chili. Though I originally thought about adding some sort of meat to this, I ultimately decided that a vegetarian chili recipe was needed around here! The farro goes really well with traditional chili ingredients, like kidney beans, tomato paste, onion, garlic, and vegetable broth. I topped the chili off with a spoonful of sour cream and a pinch of cheese, but if you want to keep this recipe vegan-friendly, simply omit those ingredients or use dairy free alternatives.
REASONS TO MAKE THIS EASY CHILI
If I haven’t completely sold you on the idea of farro yet, let me convince you on why you need this farro chili in your life.
- It’s made in your slow cooker/crock pot, making it a hands-off kind of recipe. You have two options depending on your schedule 1) you can cook it on low for 5-6 hours or 2) you can cook it on high for 3 hours. It’s completely up to you!
- It’s filled with nutrient-dense ingredients like onions, kidney beans and farro, meaning it’s actually really good for you.
- The soupiness can easily be adjusted. What do I mean by this? I mean that if you like your chili to be more like the consistency of soup, you may need to add a little more broth than what my recipe calls for. Or, if you like your chili to be a bit thicker, then you can achieve that by sticking to the recipe.
- The recipe yields 4 on its own, but can easily be doubled or tripled for plenty of leftovers.
FARRO CHILI ADD-INS AND SUBSTITUTIONS
Beans: Traditional chili calls for kidney beans, so that’s what I used in this recipe. However, feel free to use any beans you have on hand, like pinto or black beans.
Broth: The recipe calls for vegetable broth because it’s a vegetarian-friendly chili recipe, but you’re more than welcome to use chicken broth. Also, if you don’t have the full amount of broth, you can use some water instead.
Diced tomatoes: Any time I use diced tomatoes, I always use the fire roasted variety because I think they have so much more flavor. Alternatively, if you don’t have 2 cans diced tomatoes you can use 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 cup marinara sauce.
Add-ins: Topping chili with sour cream, cheese and cilantro is pretty standard, but feel free to get crazy with the add-ins. Other fun add-ins include jalapeños, peppers (red, green), and/or sweet potatoes.
If you still haven’t experimented with farro, this is a great starting point because it’s delicious when paired with vegetables and kidney beans and tomato sauce, just like in this farro chili recipe. What a coincidence.
OTHER ALMOND EATER CHILI RECIPES:
Easy Farro Chili
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup yellow onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 28 oz. diced tomatoes, fire roasted; with their juices
- 6 oz. tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups farro, rinsed
- 32 oz. kidney beans, (2 cans); drained and rinsed
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 3 cups vegetable broth
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add the onion and garlic and sauté for 3-5 minutes until soft. Transfer to your slow cooker.
- Add all of the remaining ingredients to your slow cooker and give the mixture a good stir.
- Cook on HIGH for 2 1/2-3 hours, or until the farro is soft. NOTE: this chili is on the thicker side -- if you want it to be more soup-like, add an additional 1/2-1 cup of broth.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
This is going to be a keeper! Tried this in my Instant Pot. Used Trader Joe’s 10 min Farro. After reading comments, I increased spices to 1T chili powder, 1tsp cumin. Didn’t increase oregano. Added 1tsp Tajin Seasoning (a combo of Mexican spices including lime) and a dash of smoked paprika. Cooked for 15 minutes.
Conclusion: a bit too spicy, will cut down chili and Tajin. Also will increase broth to 4 cups; it came out too thick for us. Added a 3.8oz can of sliced olives before serving.
Thanks so much for sharing a great veggie meal!
Thanks Peggy! I’m glad you loved the chili!
Absolutely delicious and super easy. I did it in the insta pot for 30 minutes! Thank you for posting, this definitely will be a family favorite 💜
I’m glad you enjoyed it and that it worked well in the Instant Pot!
This recipe looks great. I love farro and have recently enjoyed use it in recipes. Can this recipe be converted for an Instant Pot? I gave my slow cooker away when I bought it.
Hi! It probably can be but I haven’t tested it so I don’t know the exact cook time for the IP. Sorry!