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Spoon Roast with Mushrooms and Farro

Name: Spoon Roast with Mushrooms and Farro
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h 40 min
Total time: 1 h 50 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 medium sirloin roast (ours was about 4.5 lbs); 1 tbsp garlic powder; 1 tbsp salt; 3 tsp dried thyme, divided; 1 tsp dried rosemary; 1 lb mushrooms, sliced (I used shiitake and button mushrooms); 1 clove garlic, minced; 1 shallot, minced; 2 tbsp olive oil, divided; 1/3 cup red wine; 1 tbsp butter; 2 cups farro, soaked for 30 minutes, then drained and rinsed; 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese; salt & pepper to taste

Published: Oct 11, 2015 · Modified: Mar 4, 2023 by Cooking Chat · This post may contain affiliate links

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Spoon Roast with Mushrooms and Farro features tender roast beef topped with mushrooms, served with a side of hearty farro grain. Perfect me for a Sunday evening, or any time you are gathering for a family meal.

Roast beef is the quintessential Sunday Supper for our family. When I was growing up, we could count on walking into my Nana’s house on a Sunday and smelling beef roasting in the oven. You didn’t need a special invite, the roast would always be large enough to feed anyone in the extended family that might decide to show up.

Now that I’m grown up and doing the cooking for my family, beef continues to be a regular part of our healthy family meals. We all know beef is a great protein source, but it’s also loaded with many other important nutrients such as iron and B vitamins.

I like to prepare beef in a wide variety of ways. Now that it’s fall, I will often be cooking beef “low and slow”. Today I’m serving up Spoon Roast with Mushrooms and Farro for #SundaySupper.

I made this recently for a family gathering at our house, and loved the way I was able to get a quick rub on the beef and let it roast in the over for about 90 minutes without needing to worry about it. Nice to be able to cook visit and catch up with family at the same time!

I put together a healthy, balanced meal featuring the spoon roast by serving along with farro, a hearty ancient strain of hard wheat popular in Italian cooking. This whole grain is very substantial, so eating it along with the recommended 3 ounce serving of beef will have big appetites quite satisfied. I tie together the beef and the farro with a mushroom sauce that lends a rich earthiness to both the beef and the grain.

To round out the healthy meal, we served the spoon roast with mushrooms and farro along with a green salad.

Why make this recipe?

Well, I think I’ve already shared how this recipe ties into family memories, and how delicious it is. But don’t take my word for it, let’s here from someone that made it recently:

This is a fantastic method for a sirloin/spoon roast, and while I use farro often I’ve never paired it with red meat before – we ended up just mixing the drippings and the mushrooms right into the farro – delicious!

★★★★★

–TOM, COMMENTING AFTER MAKING THIS OCTOBER 2020

Cooking a Spoon Roast

First, I should probably clarify that spoon roast is made from the sirloin roast cut, which is probably how you will find it labelled at the butcher counter.

When I first cooked a spoon roast a few years ago, I found some conflicting information out there about the process. After trying a few ways, I have come to really like the method whereby you start the spoon roast in a cold oven, then turn the heat up to 450.

When it reaches that temperature, cook for 10 minutes before lowering the heat to 325 for your “low and slow” cooking. 20 minutes per pound at 325 is a guide cooking guide, though I suggest checking 10 minutes earlier than the projected time to avoid overcooking.

Speaking of overcooking, remember that the roast continues to cook as it rests, so pull it out of the oven a little bit more rare than you ultimately want to serve it. This is a lean cut of beef and it’s best served medium rare to be nice and flavorful.

If you’d like to try another spoon roast recipe, my Spoon Roast with Horseradish Cream is also very popular. Check out our What to serve with roast beef article for a collection of over 40 of the best sides to serve with roast beef.

For a different cut, try our Top Round Roast Beef recipe.

More recipes with farro

The farro grain in this recipe adds to the hearty aspects of the dish. Here are a few more recipes that use it:

Wine Pairing

We had a big enough crowd to sample two wines with the spoon roast. The Pinot Noir matched the earthiness of the mushrooms; while the more full-bodied Merlot went well with the beef.

Peju Merlot with Spoon Roast — *A good Merlot pairs well with this spoon roast.*

Let’s talk a bit more about the Merlot pairing. We opened the Peju Merlot ($35, 14.5% ABV) from Napa to go with the spoon roast. I got eucalyptus on the nose, cherry taste, refined finish. The pairing definitely gets a thumbs up!

See our Merlot food pairing article for more foods to make with Merlot wine!