So.  You don’t know what farro is?  Farro is an italian grain, made from wheat.  The awesome thing about it?  It stays crunchy when you cook it, giving nice texture to whatever you cook.  I use it sometimes to replace rice in risotto, because I love the texture and flavour and surprisingly so do the kids.  Now why put it in a stew?  To initiate you all.  You see, everyone’s wild about quinoa, but farro is healthy for you too and as far as I’m concerned tastes better than quinoa, although the crunchiness can be an acquired taste.

This stew went down so well with the kiddies, in fact Miss 4 ate two bowls full and then actually got excited that I was freezing the leftovers, because that meant there would be some for another night.  Sometimes I am just stunned by my kids.  Anyway, there isn’t much that you can go wrong with when you’re making a lamb stew, and popping it in the slow cooker just makes it all the more easy and yummy.

I used white wine in this stew, replace it with another cup of stock if giving your kids food with wine in it isn’t your thing.  But I have to admit the wine adds flavour, quite a bit of it…so I can’t guarantee the results without it. I’ve also used homemade veggie stock, but feel free to use whatever stock you normally would if homemade isn’t your thing.

Please, please please…brown the lamb!  It makes so much difference to the taste!  This freezes really well, so pop the extra serving in the freezer for an easy to reheat meal.

There are still many ways you can serve lamb to your family. Here are my other suggestions:

• Moroccan Lamb with slow cooker or pressure cooker method
• Spiced lamb, fetta and spinach gozleme – the cheat’s version!
• Lollipop lamb (don’t tell them they are filled with veggies!)

Lamb and farro stew

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 7 minutes

Total Time: 27 minutes

This delicious lamb and farro stew will be a hit! Perfect for this weather, and done in the slowcooker. Kid friendly, freezer friendly and veggie packed.

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Ingredients

• 1 kg diced lamb
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup farro
• 1 zucchini chopped into rounds
• 4 potatoes diced
• 2 cups veggie stock
• 1 sweet potato peeled and diced
• 2 leeks
• 3 tbsps olive oil
• 2 handfuls baby spinach

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a fry pan and add the leek. Fry until soft.
2. Add the lamb in batches and fry until browned.
3. Add the wine and stock and bring to the boil.
4. Add the farro, all veg except zucchini and spinach and the veggie stock/wine mix with the lamb into the slow cooker.
5. Cook on high for one hour, then 6 hours low.
6. In the last hour, add the zucchini.
7. Last 1/2 hour add the spinach.