Meatballs with Farro and Rosemary

These hearty meatballs are made a bit healthier with the addition of farro.

My family loves meatballs and I’m always looking for new ways to make them and new flavor combinations. I even did a whole series on meatballs over on TheCookful! For this recipe, I decided to try to go a little healthier by including farro.

What Is Farro?

Farro is an ancient grain that is high in fiber, low in gluten, and has lots of protein. It can be used in lots of ways that you might normally use rice or other grains.

How To Make Meatballs With Rosemary And Farro

For this farro meatball recipe, the meatballs are baked in the oven rather than fried. I do this because it’s easier. The rolling of the meatballs can be time-consuming. After that, you definitely don’t want to stand over them at the stove, watching for browning and making sure to flip them in time.

Instead, these go onto a large baking sheet in the oven for a little while. If you feel like it, you can roll them over halfway through for more even browning but it’s not necessary.

Once they’re cooked, toss them into a pot with your favorite tomato sauce and let them simmer there for awhile before serving.

Note that the recipe calls for cooked farro. Find out how to cook farro using three different methods (stove top, oven and slow cooker) over here.

Meatballs with Farro and Rosemary

• Author: Christine Pittman
• Prep Time: 12 minutes
• Cook Time: 18 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Entrée
• Method: Baked
• Cuisine: Italian

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DESCRIPTION

These tasty meatballs are made healthier with the addition of farro, a grain. Cook up 1 and 1/2 cups of farro (yielding 3 cups when cooked) the day before. Use half as a side dish for that night and the other half in these meatballs. Find out how to cook farro on the stove top, in the oven and in the slowcooker here.

If you don’t have farro, you can use cooked white or brown rice, barley or wheat berries instead. Once the meatballs are cooked, add them to your favorite warmed up tomato or BBQ sauce and let them simmer there for 10 minutes or so before serving. This recipe yields 30-35 one tablespoon-sized meatballs.

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Ingredients

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• 1 and 1/2 cups cooked farro
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. dry rosemary
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450ºF.
2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients.
3. Gently form mixture into 1 tablespoon balls and place them on a large rimmed baking sheet.
4. Bake until cooked through, 18-22 minutes, flipping each meatball over halfway through for more even browning.