Farro Roasted Veggie Bowls with Green Tahini Yogurt Sauce and Spiced Seeds
Oh my! This grain bowl might be one of my all-time favorites. I just love the creamy, bright green tahini and yogurt sauce that coats charred veggies, crunchy fennel, and farro. What really took it to the next level for me was the spiced seeds. They add a wonderful nutty, warming crunch and lots of flavor from the spice mixture.
Highly recommend prepping some things ahead for this one! There are multiple components, so to make dinner time go smoothly, prep at least 2-3 of them. If it were me, I’d have the spiced seeds and sauce made, protein cooked, and the farro cooked. This works great with a medium boiled egg, but you could use grilled chicken or cooked lentils instead.
Ingredient highlight
Tahini! Is a Middle Eastern condiment made from ground sesame seeds, so it has all of the same benefits as sesame seeds. Sesame seeds are high in lignans, which are powerful antioxidants. They are also rich in fiber, monounsaturated fats, B vitamins, copper, magnesium, iron, zinc, and calcium.
If your tahini is very bitter, it’s likely gone bad or isn’t good quality. Soom is my favorite brand and totally worth the purchase!
Servings 4 People
Prep Time 10 minutes 
Cook Time 25 minutes 
Total Time 36 minutes Ingredients
- 1 cup farro or about 2 ½ cups cooked
- 3 carrots peeled and chopped (about 2 cups)
- 1 head broccoli cut into small florets (about 2 cups)
- 1 bell pepper seeds removed, cut into thin strips
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ¾ tsp salt, divided
- 4 eggs, boiled peeled and halved (or cooked lentils or chicken)*
- 1 large fennel bulb cored, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Fresh herbs
- 4 lemon wedges
For the spiced seeds:
- 1 cup mixed seeds pumpkin, sunflower, sesame
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch red pepper flakes or ground cayenne optional for spice
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
For the tahini sauce:
- 1 cup fresh herbs cilantro, parsley, dill
- ¾ cup water
- ½ cup tahini
- ½ cup plain whole milk yogurt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- *use any cooked protein for this bowl!
How-To Boil Eggs:
- Bring a medium pot of water (with enough water to cover eggs) to a boil. Reduce the heat a bit and gently add in your eggs with a spoon. Bring it back up to a rapid simmer. For a soft yolk, simmer for 6-7 minutes, depending on the size of your egg (medium yolk 7-8 minutes, hard yolk 8-10 minutes). Start the timer when the water starts to rapidly simmer again. Immediately transfer to a bowl filled with cold ice water (I usually just take the eggs out of the pot and put them in a bowl and add cold water, adding more cold water as the water temperature warms up).
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium pot over high heat, add the farro and enough water to cover by at least 2-inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until cooked through, about 20-30 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Add your mix of seeds to the baking sheet along with the olive oil, spices, and salt. Toss to thoroughly coat. Bake for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through. Transfer to a plate to cool.
- Increase the oven to 450F or 425F convection. Line the same baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add carrots, broccoli, and bell pepper to the baking sheet and toss with the oil and ½ teaspoon salt. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the broccoli gets deeply charred (like kind of burnt!).
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the fennel, lemon and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Set aside.
- Finally, let’s make the sauce! Add all of the ingredients to a high speed blender and blend until smooth. Depending on the thickness of your tahini, you will need to add more or less water, so be sure to taste and add more salt or lemon, if needed. If the sauce is too runny, you can add more tahini. Keep in mind that it will thicken up in the fridge.
- Add the warm farro and roasted veggies, fennel slaw, and halved boiled egg to your bowl. Sprinkle some salt on that egg. Top generously with the sauce, spiced seeds, more fresh herbs, black pepper, and a generous squeeze of lemon.
Items you can prep ahead (optional)
- Cook 1 cup farro
- Boil 4 eggs or cook other protein
- Toast your seeds
- Make the sauce
- Prep fennel
- Prep and roast broccoli, carrot, bell pepper
Substitutions:
- Use any grain instead of farro or roast some extra veggies
- Use any combination of veggies. I love the char of the broccoli in this one!
- Use a boiled or fried egg or any other protein (grilled chicken or steak, lentils, tofu, etc…)
- Use any spices you like for the seeds. I love the smoky paprika and sweet cinnamon combo, but feel free to make it your own
- To make vegan: use dairy-free yogurt OR skip the yogurt. Just add 1 tbsp more lemon juice and ½-¼ of an avocado. Use legumes or tofu instead of egg.
- To make gluten free: use quinoa or brown rice instead of farro
- Any old raw crunchy veg will work in place of the fennel! Radish would be delish.
- Pickled red onions would be an excellent addition!
Storage:
-
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge
- Tahini yogurt sauce: up to 7 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer
- Farro: up to 5 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer
- Roasted veggies: up to 4 days in the fridge
Leftovers + Repurposing:
- Warm up the veggies and farro, then serve with all the goods!
- You could add the farro and veggies to a pan with some oil and give it a quick stir-fry to crisp things up again
- Turn it into a salad by adding kale.
- Use leftover tahini sauce on bowls, grilled meats, roasted veggies
- Use the sauce as a dip for veggies! It gets nice and thick when cold, so could easily use this way or even as a spread on a sandwich.
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