What is FARRO ? Farro is an ancient grain, a type of wheat, known for its nutty flavor and chewy texture, and is a versatile ingredient used in various dishes like soups, salads, and risotto
The Italian word farro can mean “ancient grain” and refer to a few older varieties of our modern day wheat such as, emmer, spelt and einkorn wheat, all of which are forerunner grains of our modern wheat. TJ’s Farro is a tasty and healthy whole grain. High fiber, high protein.
FARRO is a good whole grain which is quite nutritious. FARRO a good source of protein, fiber and has lots of nutrients. Its a healthier alternative to some refined grains for example, white rice (and don’t get me wrong I like and eat white rice). Farro has even gotten a bit trendy in the food world. Maybe you’ve seen farro served as a side dish at a fancy Italian or other kind of restaurant. It’s tasty.
It has a nutty taste and slightly chewy texture. It’s delicious on its own with just some butter, salt and pepper. You can cook it in water, with a pinch of salt or cook it in some broth (veg, chicken or beef) which will of course make it even tastier. Farro is a good grain for using as a “bed” to put something on top of, or as a side dish. Just like you might use rice or orzo for example. Trader Joe’s 10 minute Farro cooks quickly. In 10-12ß minutes.
We like to make farro either as a side dish or part of the Main, say mixed with other veggies, sometimes as the base of a protein bowl. Whole grains like this normally take about 45-60 minutes to cook however TJ’s “10 Minute Farro” obviously cooks much faster. I am just guessing that it’s been parboiled to cut down on the cooking time. So it’s really convenient, and healthy and it’s not too expensive either. Trader Joe’s 10 Minute Farro sells for $1.79 1.99 for an 8.8 oz. bag
There is a good sounding recipe written on the Trader Joe’s bag for “Farro with Sausage & Apples” (using chicken sausage).
TJ’s farro is something I buy all the time, along with other grains they have. Farro is good to have in the pantry.
HOW TO COOK FARRO: I suggest the “SIMMER” method described on the bag. Use 1/2 cup Farro and 2/3 cup water or broth or combo. Put that in a pot. You can add a little butter and maybe salt depending if you used water or broth. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, and cook covered for about 10-12 minutes. Turn it off and let it stand 5 minutes before serving. Pretty easy!
You can mix cooked farro with cooked brown rice to come up with your own version of something like TJ’s famous (or maybe infamous) “Brown Rice Medley” (which TJ’s Discontinued much to the outrage of many people who read this blog!)
Gave this new product addition a try as it sounded a bit interesting. I grilled the chicken in a cast iron pan. Was it really “exceptionally moist and juicy” as advertised? Frankly it was OK however I found the taste and texture really nothing special. My main question was given the premium price ($5/lb) is it worth it – Versus – my just buying bone in chicken at Trader Joe’s (which is around 1/2 the price) then fixing that up myself. Marinating it in buttermilk or yogurt takes minutes to make, though it does need time to marinate). Now TJ’s sells a whole chicken for $1.99 a lb. or about $10-11 for a 5 lb bird which will feed 4 (or you can buy parts for $2-4/lb.)
The 1/2 chicken I got was 1.5 lbs. Clearly from a very small chicken (around 3 lbs) The leg here only had about 3 bites worth of meat on it, though the breast was fairly meaty. It came with the neck too, something that most people might just throw away (me, I gave it to the cats!) So cooked, there was not a ton of meat on this 1/2 chicken. I doubt this 1/2 chicken will “serve two people?” as they suggest. In sum, I didn’t find this a very good value. It would be cost way less to just buy chicken and just marinate it myself. Personally I would more likely marinate it in Greek YOGURT (yogurt makes for very tender chicken). For a better flavor than this bland marinade I would use a lot of spices, for an Indian or Middle Eastern flavor. Tumeric, Cumin, Garlic, Ajika. Now that would be make a way more interesting grilled chicken dish than how this pretty meh chicken turned out. Also, it may not be a fair comparison yet still I could not help thinking for I paid for this 1/2 chicken ($7.50) I could have picked up a whole rotisserie chicken for less (BJs or Costco) and they are very tasty. So personally I probably will not buy this buttermilk brined chicken again. If I wanted “easy and ready to cook” I would rather pick up something right next to this that I know is actually worth it : TJ’s SHAWARMA CHICKEN which sells for a dollar more a pound than this, and as its boneless, has zero waste so more bang for the buck.
Now since writing this review, I have learned a TikTok video recipe about this Trader Joe’s brined half chicken went viral and sparked a lot of interest in this chicken. I watched the video. The cooking techniques she does look sound to me (salting to bring moisture to the surface, wiping off moisture, grilling the skin, and then roasting) however this should produce as good results with any marinated or brined chicken.
“Are you a seeking the secret to sensationally moist and juicy Chicken? Search no further, your quest is complete—it’s Buttermilk! This cultured dairy product makes a magnificent marinade, as the acidity in the Buttermilk will tenderize the chicken, allowing it to retain more of its juices when cooking…”
Great copy-writing however the product didn’t live up to this description in my opinion. Of course try it for yourself if you are interested. However I would suggest if you do, season it up quite a bit. It’s pretty bland as-is.
Trader Joe’s ORGANIC POLENTA; cooked; ready to heat and serve. Gluten Free.
Ingredients: Water, Organic Corn Meal, Salt
Just in case you are not yet familiar with Polenta, it’s simple and delicious. Polenta is inexpensive, healthy, gluten free, and vegetarian. Its just coarsely ground corn. That’s it. This Organic Polenta from Trader Joe’s comes in a plastic tube. Its been precooked which save you about 45 minutes. It’s ready to slice up into 1/2″ slices which you grill up into crispy fried polenta rounds. This is really yummy and cheap. This is why polenta has been a staple of Italian “cucina povera” for centuries, very similar of course to “grits” here in the US. TJ’s tube of cooked polenta is convenient, shelf stable, and is only $1.99. One tube can easily make a dinner for two. We love it as an alternative to pasta. I recommend you pan fry it as being the best way to serve this. The package also says you can bake it. Any way to get it crispy. Please don’t consider microwaving as it also says on the package!. For polenta to be tasty it is best as crispy as possible, as this way it gets a really nice chewy “meaty” texture.
As shown in the first picture is how I made the polenta into dinner recently. I sautéed the slices in olive oil plus a little butter to help it brown better, for maybe 10 minutes a side – note, this is double the recommended time of 4-5 minutes on the package. Trust me, you want to get this very golden brown and delicious. I flipped it over and put a bit of mozzarella on each slice which melted as the other side cooked. When it was ready to serve, I plated it up and spooned over tomato sauce, in this case TJ’s Roasted Garlic Marinara sauce which is quite good by the way. I grated some extra cheese, Asiago all over. This made for a delicious Italian dinner along with a little salad and crusty bread. Dinner for two for about $4 bucks.
I always like to keep one of these shelf stable packages of TJ’s polenta in the pantry as it can make an easy, fast dinner for those times when you have “nothing” to eat in the house. A tube of this and a jar of sauce and you have dinner in 10 minutes. Not to mention Polenta’s perfect for Meatless Monday’s. Would I but this again? Yes I buy this regularly, its an excellent cheap TJ product and a great staple to have in your pantry.
If you love finding great new cheeses I think you will find this new cheese Trader Joe’s started carrying as outstanding as I did. It’s called “Vault No. 5 Cave Aged” cheese from the “Cellars at Jasper Hills”. You can probably tell just by looking at that funky rind, this is a “serious” farm produced cheese like cheese you might find in a “fromagerie” in Paris. The moment I tasted this cheese I fell in love with it. To me, it’s another Wow Trader Joe’s item, just amazingly good. If you blindfolded me I would have sworn it was some European cheese, maybe an aged Comté or Gruyere or Emmenthaler with those types of complex, nutty flavors present in those cheeses. Well guess what, “Vault No. 5” is not from France or Switzerland but comes from the Green Mountains of VERMONT from Jasper Hill Farms . It’s cave aged by them for 12 months as it undergoes affinage in their cellars underground.
It has a natural (and funky looking!) rind which looks like that because it is loaded with (friendly) bacteria and cultures. Vault No. 5 has an edible rind (I ate some) but of course you can cut it off as my wife insisted before she would eat some. In fact, she first said the cheese is spoiled (ha!) but I told her no its just aged in some cave in Vermont for a year.
“Vault No. 5” tastes terrific on its own, on a cracker or with some good bread. How is it with fruit? When I paired it with an apple it was seemed to taste even better, in fact I couldn’t stop eating them. They say this cheese matches well with red wine and ales. Now when you melt it, it’s out of this world. Grilled cheese? Yes please. I can only imagine a grilled cheese made with this and some Unexpected Cheddar (note to self; try that) Trader Joe’s is selling Vault No. 5 for $10.99 a pound, a not a bad deal considering it’s high quality. In a top cheese shop in NYC I know premium farm cheeses like this go for at least $20 a pound or more. If you love TJ’s Unexpected Cheddar, you will probably love this one too so check it out folks, this is a keeper and I hope TJ’s continues to sell it forever.
“What happens when you marry old world cultures and cave-aged technique with quality milk production in the Green Mountains of Vermont? The cheese mongers at Jasper Hill did exactly that, and came up with Vault No. 5 Cave Aged Cheese.
Toasty and aromatic, Jasper Hill Vault No. 5 Cave Aged Cheese was inspired by Swiss and Italian mountain cheeses—delightfully creamy, toasty and savory, with subtle earthy notes. It’s cave aged for a minimum of one year, a process that allows a natural rind to form around its golden, straw colored paste. In short, it’s the stuff cheesy dreams are made of.“
I was pretty surprised to see this yesterday at Trader Joe’s in the plants section. I’ve never even seen an indoor coffee plant before. I think it was $7.99. As a bit of a coffee geek, I was slightly tempted to buy it (but didn’t… yet) Just in case you do, here’s some Plant Care tips for coffee I found online below. I wouldn’t expect you are going to get a harvest from this but still kinda interesting….
(UPDATE: IT WAS OUT OF STOCK FOR SOME TIME BUT IS NOW BACK IN STORES (Jun 2022)
“Blend of pearled couscous, orzo, split baby garbanzo bean and red quinoa”
HARVEST GRAIN BLEND is a healthy blend of grains and beans and is both a healthy and tasty Trader Joe’s product that you must try if you’ve never had it.
Harvest Grain Blend makes a quick, super easy side dish, ready in as little as 10 minutes. It makes a great side dish, as shown here plated up with a piece of broiled salmon. Of course one could just as easily plated this up , restaurant style, as the bed with the salmon on top and the grains on the bottom, with a mound of this on the plate and whatever your Main or Protein is on top. Another idea for this grain blend is for the the base of a protein bowl. Make up a Protein Bowl with this and top with say an egg, or tofu or what have you, vegetarian or non. You can make this mix with water, butter and a little salt. Even better would be to use broth (veggie broth, chicken broth, etc) which of course make it even more flavorful. You could even toss in some veggies too if you like, maybe adding frozen peas or spinach (yum!) or mixed frozen veggies. Add them during the last 3 minutes of cooking. It’s easy to make and fairly foolproof.
Instructions: Bring 1 3/4 cups water or broth to a boil. Add 1 tbl butter (or EVOO). Add 1 1/4 cup Harvest Blend. Once its boiling again, reduce heat to a simmer. Cook covered for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Fluff and serve.
A 16 oz bag now goes for $2.99. This is something I must have in the house at all times. Its super fast, easy, healthy, and lasts a long time in the pantry. I find this great for those times when you think you have “nothing to eat” in the house. I can make this grain dish, open a can of TJ’s terrific poached salmon , put it on top. Dinner in 10 minutes with almost no effort!
Harvest Grain Blend is really good and worth trying. It helps make up for the loss of the brown rice medley TJ’s used to sell! (don’t get us fans started 😉
Ingredients: pearled couscous, orzo pasta, split baby garbanzos, red quinoa
Ground turkey is something I buy fairly frequently at Trader Joe’s as I find it a versatile ingredient. It’s a convenient protein to have on hand in the fridge, or freezer. Obviously also it has less fat and calories than ground beef, plus is much less expensive, all of which is why ground turkey is a big go-to ingredient for many people. Taste-wise however ground turkey is on the bland side and needs some jazzing up to be tasty. I have found it benefits from two things. One, deep browning. Getting it really browned improves its flavor (due to the Maillard effect). Number two: using lots of seasoning. One excellent match for ground turkey is TJ’s taco seasoning, the 79 cents “miracle” packet. Other good Trader Joe’s seasoning blends that match well with it are: TJ’s Cuban Style Citrus Garlic Blend seasoning, TJ’s Ajika Georgian Seasoning, ground cumin, black pepper and of course lots of garlic, ground or especially fresh chopped garlic. So my “secret” for ground turkey is I season it really, really generously, coating it completely, as the TJ ground turkey is pretty “wet” which make it’s hard to brown. I’ve found a good amount of dry seasoning coating on the outside gives it a drier surface that makes it brown more easily. So if you put a good deal of seasoning on the outside to provide a dry surface for pan grilling (add as little salt or no salt since the seasonings may have salt, check the package) it helps. I also try to minimally compress the ground meat even if making into a burger. I don’t compress the meat much either, as minimally as possible. I sprinkle the dry seasonings generously all over and gently lay it into a VERY hot cast iron pan with good tablespoon or two of olive oil or an oil and butter mix. I don’t touch or move it at all until the bottom side has turned quite brown which can take a good 6-8 minutes. If making turkey for tacos, I just lay it from the package (seasoned) into the pan and try to not break it up until it is done and very browned. This yields large chunks which I like. If you want to mix it with other ingredients like chopped veggies, then you can even add an egg and some binder (panko, breadcrumbs, etc) and then form that into patties.
Ground turkey recipes are all over the internet and found easily. Here’s mine for a fast turkey bean chili.
EASY TURKEY BEAN CHILI: Season turkey as described above, Cook in a hot pan in a nice slug of oilve oil (better still a mix of oil & butter). Cook until turkey is very browned on one side; then flip and add a chopped medium onion and ground cumin to taste. Sauté together until the onion is a lightly browned and fragrant. Add a few cloves of chopped garlic. Break up the turkey keeping a few large chunks for texture. Add a large tablespoon of Tomato paste, mix in and cook on low-medium heat for a minute. Add a can of drained red kidney (or black beans) then a can of Fire Roasted Tomatoes with Green Chiles. Rinse out the can with some water to get everything and add all that liquid. Simmer everything on low for about 20-30 minutes to let the flavors blend. Taste and adjust seasoning/salt if needed. Serve with rice with grated cheddar cheese on top. (Variation -Turkey Bean Chili Soup; this can easily become a soup instead of a stew, just add more liquid (chicken or beef broth or another can of tomatoes) and simmer together till done. )
The TJ ground turkey goes for about $4 a lb. The regular turkey is better overall. The more expensive all white meat ground turkey breast kind can turn out too dry unless you are super careful cooking it, and mix it with other ingredients to keep it moist. If you don’t use ground turkey within 2 days of purchase, put the package in the freezer, and do an overnight defrost in the fridge the day before you want to use it. Yes I know it has a 2 week “use by” date on the package but all ground meats are best used as fresh as possible, within a day or two. TJ’s dates are way too generous for me.
UPDATE: (April 2022, I noticed ground turkey has prices crept up about 50 cents due to rampant inflation)
“Organic Date Syrup is made from 100% Deglet Noor dates with nothing added. It makes a deliciously sweet topping or ingredient and can be used in place of maple, agave or any other syrup”
This is an interesting product, a very, very thick, sweet dark syrup made solely from dates. It tastes exactly like dates of course. I find it delicious and unique. It is a little expensive at $3.50 for a 6 oz bottle, however you use it in very, very small amounts, way less than say you would use honey so a bottle will last for awhile. One use I find this date syrup goes especially well with is drizzled on top of plain yogurt on my morning cereal and I don’t use much of it, just a tiny drizzle or two is plenty as its so intensely concentrated giving everything a lovely flavor.
TRADER JOES HAS THIS TO SAY
“Dates have been a part of people’s diets for an extraordinarily long time — archaeological evidence suggests that date palms been cultivated by humans for at least 7,000 years! But even beyond their countless culinary uses when eaten as a whole fruit, dates have also been used to make other foods sweeter since the days of ancient Mesopotamia. So while we’d like to introduce Trader Joe’s Organic Date Syrup as a new item, it’s actually an extremely old one — just new to us, is all. Made entirely from organic Tunisian Deglet Noor dates, this Syrup has a naturally warm and caramelly taste and can be used to add sweetness to anything you’d use agave or maple syrup on. Everything from pancakes and French toast, cakes and pastries, cocktails and coffee drinks, vinaigrettes and marinades, all take on a rich sweetness with even just a light drizzling of our Organic Date Syrup — we find that its dark, butterscotch-y flavor feels tailor-made for topping ice cream.”
This shape, “Gigli” is sometimes also called “Campanelle” (tower) a twisty corkscrew shape with a frilly edge. This is one of TJ’s premium pastas that go for a bit more than the regular Organic pastas they carry. This one goes for $2.99 for a 1.1 lb bag, a premium price but its a premium pasta. This is a high quality Organic Pasta made in Italy by a premium manufacturer. You can note by the closeup of the pasta, it has that rough exterior indicating it’s bronze die cut and the lighter color indicating it’s slow dried, like the best Italian pastas you might find at a specialty Italian grocery – and which probably sell for double or more than this.
The cook time is only 5-7 minutes and I would stop it at a minute under Al Dente for finishing with a sauce (which means maybe around 4 minutes). I cooked this pasta with a sauce of sautéed fresh cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and feta cheese and everyone seemed to love it. My only minor complaint is when it was cooked some of the frilly edges detached into little stringy things, which look a bit weird but again this a very minor complaint. Taste wise this is another excellent quality pasta from Trader Joe’s. This corkscrew shape will be good with any sauce especially any sauce that will get into every nook and cranny of this shape. Though I haven’t tried it yet for CACIO E PEPE, I have a feeling they would be good with each other
RECIPE – EASY CHERRY TOMATO AND FETA CHEESE PASTA
Put up a large pan of salted water to boil for the pasta. In a large sauté pan, cook about 12-16 oz of cherry tomatoes (sliced in half) in a good amount of olive oil on med-high heat until the tomatoes start to soften up, about 5-7 minutes. Throw in about 4-5 cloves of minced garlic and cook for another few minutes and at the same time, I push the tomatoes to the side and put a good amount of FETA cheese cut into cube on the other side of the pan and cook on medium heat until they start to brown a little bit. Turn off the heat. Cook the pasta; check it for about a minute underal dente and toss the drained pasta into the pan with the sauce adding about a ladle of the pasta water. Cook for one minute until al dente and mix it all together. Top with a bit of more grated cheese (Parm, Pecorino, or Asiago), some fresh ground pepper and plate it up. Enjoy!
Traditional Italian pasta is made with only two ingredients, durum wheat semolina flour and water—a small amount of softer wheat flour is allowed by law, but Trader Joe’s Organic Italian Artisan Gigli Pasta is crafted with 100% organic durum wheat semolina sourced from farms in Puglia. Our supplier has been producing artisan-made pasta for more than 35 years. Most dried pasta are made in huge batches and dried quickly, from three to 12 hours. This Artisan Pasta is made in small batches, and dried at much lower temperatures for up to 24 hours, resulting in a more rustic texture that cooks to a delightfully al dente texture. Gigli, also known as Campanelle (translates to “bellflowers” or “little bells”), has a ruffled edge and hollow center, so it holds any sauce extremely well. Marinara? Carbonara? Just a bit of olive oil and shaved Parmesan? Any of these will do, deliciously.
This is a great new pasta Trader Joe’s recently introduced with a great shape. It’s a “Fusilli” (corkscrew) curly shaped pasta with a little hole (bucati) in the center. This shape is very good and will hold lwhatever lovely sauce or ingredients you use with it. You can tell it’s a premium quality pasta just by looking closely: the exterior is not smooth but rough indicating it was *bronze die cut, and produced by a high end artisanal Italian manufacturer (closeup below: note the rough texture). This pasta has a fast cooking time, the package says 7-8 minutes. I just cooked it and at around 6 minutes it was al dente, meaning if I’m going to finish this with the sauce in a pan the way Italians do, I would fish the pasta out at around the 5 minute mark – a minute under al dente.
closeup
I just cooked some to taste, quite simply with butter, grated cheese and pepper. It was excellent. This is indeed terrific pasta. This corkscrew hollow shape should be great with many sauces, either tomato based and I think especially with a pesto sauce (green or red)
Trader Joe’s ORGANIC FUSILLI CORTI BUCATI PASTA. Imported From Italy. Organic Durum Semolina Wheat. $1.99. Try this if you see it, it’s really good. Me, I will buy a bunch for our pantry.
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