Maple-Glazed Carrot & Farro Bowls

Food Prep and Cooking

Nick:

Nothing too surprising - cook the farro in a pot, cut up the carrots, roast 'em in the oven. The biggest problem we had was, as always, with the kale; the instructions have you put oil, salad dressing and salt and pepper on it, then like massage it? How am I supposed to do that? I'm not touching it with my bare hands after pouring all that stuff on, right? The instructions act like everyone learns how to massage kale in school. What do you want from me, Green Chef???

Katie:

I echo Nick's sentiments, especially regarding the kale. Shouldn't we be massaging it before dumping all the gunk on it?

On a positive note, the sealant did not fail on our powder packet of seasoning this time. We got the full pouch.

Post-meal Thoughts

Nick:

Whooh boy, I did not enjoy this. In fact, I think I would put this as tied for the worst meal we've had. There are three big components; the carrots, the farro (plus walnuts and tomatoes), and the kale. The carrots are fine; they don't really taste like much, and we were instructed to cut them up too big to make them bite-sized, which was kind of annoying, but fine. The farro was good, nice and salty and mildly spicy. The problem is the kale, which is absolutely nasty. I have come to realize that I really don't like kale, and taking a bite that includes kale just tastes like kale. From the name of this dish, I was expecting something sweet and maple-y; from the ton of seasoning we dumped on the farro, I was expecting something spicy; from that combination, you might expect a delicious dish, but guess what? It just tastes like kale. I didn't even want to eat all of mine. What a disappointment. The kale really ruins this dish; take the kale out and it would probably be pretty good (a bite of farro, tomato, and walnut was wonderful, but it's hard to find a bite that doesn't have kale ruining it). Swing and a miss here, guys. To improve this dish, aside from removing the disgusting kale, I would cut the carrots in half to make them bite-sized. F+

Katie:

There are some problems with this dish. First, the kale. Kale tastes like bitter leaves to me. It takes a lot of flavoring to mask the bitterness. I thought there was a dish we had that smothered the kale enough so it wasn't bad but I can't remember. We were instructed to dump only a tablespoon of the green goddess dressing on the kale, saving the rest "for taste" at the end. Big mistake. Kale needs a lot of help to not be a bitter, depressed mangle of leaves, still angry at its ex over that divorce 10 years ago. She's moved on, Kale. Stop being bitter and move on with your life.

Second problem; the farro. I know Nick said he liked it. It was fine. There was some good smokiness to the flavoring powder but not underlying flavoring to elevate it beyond just being smoky. There was no hint of the wood smoked...just the smoke like it was off any old backyard summer bonfire.

Third problem; the carrots. As the item I liked the most, it still wasn't that good. Maybe they needed to be cooked longer, they definitely needed to be smaller, and they never developed a good caramelization glaze. They were cooked carrots tasting of maple rather than maple-glazed carrots.

Copying Nick's bit, I'm going to suggest how to improve this dish. First, make the kale its own bowl if you are hellbent on keeping it. Throw all the green goddess at it along with something else to flavor and texture it. Second, keep the tomatoes in with the farro only roast them. I don't know if you can maple-glaze tomatoes but why not? Third, provide more direction on what 'lightly oil' means. If getting a maple glaze on your carrots is important, direct your readers further on how to accomplish it. I have a feeling our 'lightly oil' was not the same amount of oil as the recipe author's. 

Perhaps Green Chef needs different cooking levelled recipes. Beginners get the version with everything explained (medium-low heat to lightly oil are spelled out in actual measurements) while more advanced home cooks can get the more vague directions.