I try to fit in some meal prep on Sundays for the upcoming week, like prepping vegetables, baking marinated tofu or tempeh, or cooking a batch of whole grains. I’m always grateful during the week when I can quickly heat up a comforting homemade meal. But there are some weekends I don’t feel like meal prep. I need to be a couch potato. Or maybe time is short trying to run errands and visit family/friends. Can you relate? 🙂

So I love this super easy go-to meal that has only 5 main ingredients, and all but one are canned! Processed. Yes I know some folks snub this type of food. Like everyone on Master Chef and Top Chef. But some canned processed foods taste ok and retain their important nutrients…and are just very very convenient.

This dish is high in protein from the beans and farro (did you know farro has twice the protein and 2-3x fiber of brown rice? AND much more interesting texture). There’s also fiber in every other ingredient. The flavoring comes from salsa—this one is a spicy peach mango. You don’t need to add any other seasonings, unless you want to. If you’re on a low-sodium diet you can choose low-salt or no-salt-added canned beans and corn. The 6th optional ingredient shown is a type of long pea pod from my neighbor’s garden. She gave me a huge bag and I wasn’t sure how else to cook them so I chopped them into small pieces and added to this dish!

FARRO WITH BEANS AND CORN

Ingredients

1 cup dry farro

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn, drained and rinsed

1 jar favorite salsa

Directions

1. Rinse farro in a colander. Place 3 cups of water and the farro in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on medium for 20-25 minutes or until farro is tender but has a bite. Some types of farro take longer to cook, so follow package directions. (If you’re adding raw vegetables, add them to the pot the last 5-10 minutes of cooking the farro. Greens like spinach and kale may take 5 minutes whereas large pea pods, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. take longer.)
2. Drain farro and stir in the drained beans and corn. Add as much salsa as you like to saturate the mixture with flavor; I used about half the jar.

You’re done! You can add other herbs as you wish. The dish tastes fine warm or at room temperature, so it makes a great lunch to bring to the office that doesn’t need refrigeration. It’s no fancy dish but does the trick satisfaction-wise and I always looked forward to eating it during the work week!