How to Cook Farro

Farro is a grain with a nutty, earthy flavor and hearty, slightly chewy texture. This recipe will answer all your questions about how to cook farro, using a stovetop or Instant Pot.

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The mild earthy flavor of farro is really versatile. You can add it to almost any salad, soup or stew. Farro is easy to cook and it's a wholesome addition to vegetarian and plant-based meals that you want to make more filling.

For dinner or lunch, I love farro bowls with salmon, sweet potato and parsley-lime dressing. You can also make a healthy, filling meal from Instant Pot Farro Soup with Lemon Ginger broth.

How to Serve Farro

Make a Salad: I often add farro to a green salad or toss farro with any vinaigrette (or just lemon and olive oil) to make a quick grain salad. Add your favorite raw or roasted veggies, beans, nuts and seeds, cheese, olives... whatever you like!

As a Side Dish: Serve farro with Mediterranean grilled chicken with cucumber yogurt sauce, or vegetarian shawarma sheet-pan dinner, or chickpeas and spinach, or easy weeknight tofu.

Farro Cheat Sheet

• Most Common Type of Farro Sold in Stores: Pearled or Semi-Pearled
• Farro Water Ratio: 3:1 (water:farro)
• Instant Pot Cooking Time for Pearled/Semi-Pearled: 10 to 12 minutes, high pressure and quick release
• Stovetop Cooking Time for Pearled/Semi-Pearled: 20 to 30 minutes, simmered in water
• How Much Should I Cook? 1 cup dry = 3 cups cooked

Types of Farro

Whole Grain Farro: Contains the germ and the bran, which means it retains more nutrients and takes longer to cook, anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes on a stove top. This is the most hearty type of farro, and is less likely to become mushy when cooked.  

Pearled and Semi-Pearled Farro: The most common type of farro sold in grocery stores. Often the package will just say “farro” on the front and you’ll have to look at the back ingredient list to see “pearled farro.”

Semi-pearled farro has part of the bran removed and pearled farro has all of the bran removed, so neither one is considered a whole grain. Pearled and semi-pearled farro cook faster than whole grain farro. The texture is slightly softer than whole grain farro. 

Quick Cook Farro: Quick cooking farro cooks in just ten minutes, which is really convenient! It has been partially cooked and dried, so it’s considered the most processed.

Water Ratio

Honestly, there isn't an exact ratio that's correct. It's easiest to cook farro using "pasta method" which means cooking farro like pasta in a lot of water, then simply draining off any remaining water in a colander when the grain is cooked.

If you'd like an exact measurement, then a 3:1 ratio is about right (3 cups lightly salted water + 1 cup farro), for both the stove top or in a pressure cooker.

No matter how much water you use, don't let the cooked farro sit in the extra water when it's done cooking, or it will continue to absorb the water and get mushy.

Cooking Times (Instant Pot & Stovetop)

Farro is cooked when the texture is tender but still chewy. Undercooked farro is very firm or hard and overcooked farro is mushy.

Use the cooking times below as a starting point and a guide. Farro doesn’t have an exact cooking time. Rather, it has a range of cooking times depending on the type of farro and your own preference for how soft or firm you like it. This is why you'll see a wide range of cooking times when you read different recipes.

I recommend always buying the same brand of farro, or getting it from the same bulk bin, so you can find exactly the right cooking time for "your" farro. The brand of pearled farro I use with these cooking times is Bob's Red Mill.

Farro can be cooked on the stove top or in a pressure cooker. I usually cook it in my Instant Pot because it’s the most convenient method.

Farro can also be cooked in a slow cooker, but the only real reason to do this is if you're making slow cooker soup with farro in it.

Quick Cooking
This will be labeled “quick cooking” or “10-minute” farro on the package. I always simmer this type of farro on the stove top, for 10 minutes.

Instant Pot Pearled/Semi-Pearled
10 to 12 minutes, high pressure and quick release

Stovetop Pearled/Semi-Pearled
Simmer about 20 to 30 minutes

Whole Grain
This is the trickiest farro to cook and the most likely to come out undercooked. Soaking whole grain farro overnight will reduce the cooking times below.

Instant Pot Whole Grain Farro
About 25 minutes

Stovetop Whole Grain Farro
About 40 to 60 minutes

Boosting Flavor

Farro has a mild flavor that's earthy and nutty. You can boost the flavor by adding flavorful ingredients when it's cooking.

• Simmer farro in broth or apple cider
• Add whole spices to the simmering water, like bay leaf, peppercorns, coriander seeds or fennel seeds
• Add fresh herbs to the simmering water, like sprigs of parsley and thyme
• Add garlic and onion to the simmering water
• Before simmering farro, toast the grains in a dry skillet for 3 to 5 minutes until the grain is lightly browned and fragrant

Substitute Grains

There are three varieties of farro: emmer, spelt and einkorn. Packages of farro don't always indicate which variety of farro is in the package. All three varieties of farro are very similar in taste.

For any of the three varieties, I think the best farro substitute is barley. Barley has a mild, nutty flavor and looks very similar to farro. The two grains also have similar cooking times. You can swap out the barley and use farro in Crockpot Beef & Barley Stew or Instant Pot Mushroom Barley Soup.

Wheat Berries are another possible substitute. The texture is chewier and the flavor is both nutty and earthy. Bob's Red Mill has a good explanation of wheat berries and how to cook this variety of wheat.

Buckwheat could be a farro substitute as well. It has an earthier flavor and is a bit heavier than farro or barley.

Frequently Asked Questions About Farro

Cooking Rice and Grains

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