Rustic and hearty, packed with vegetables, grains, and legumes. Vegetable Farro Soup is a soup that relies heavily on pantry staples and a few fresh ingredients.
A good vegetable soup, one that’s a perfect warming mealtime option, needs to be hearty – am I right? If I’m going to eat a soup that has no meat in it, then I want it to be a soup that’s thick, chunky, and filling.
Vegetable Farro Soup is just that! Not only is it thick and chunky, it’s also very easy to make and uses mostly pantry ingredients. I know not all of us have the option of buying fresh produce every day of the week, so for people like us, a stocked pantry is the next best thing.
Our pantry is smaller than I’d like it to be, because we live in an apartment and space is a constant struggle. But, even though it’s small, we keep it well stocked with dried and canned goods, and we’re always ready to pull together a soup like Vegetable Farro Soup in no time!
Speaking of pantries, I have pantry envy. Do you? Our pantry was purchased at this quirky little store in St. Jacob’s, Ontario. It’s a small, Mennonite-based town where almost everything you find is locally made and crafted. Our pantry was no exception.
It’s a cute little thing made from recycled tobacco sticks. Apparently, the wooden slats used to construct the thing were once used to drape tobacco leaves over to dry before turning the leaves into smoking tobacco. It didn’t smell of anything but wood, but the cats sniffed at it for weeks after we brought it home.
Believe it or not, for the one of a kind, hand-crafted pantry, we paid eighty dollars. We’ve been back to that store many, many times since that initial purchase, and we’ve never seen anything remotely close to it again. Right place at the right time, I guess.
We are thinking about upgrading to a taller pantry, and if so, we will move that tobacco stick pantry to a new spot and use it for something else. I’ve thought about painting it to match the cabinet you see in the photo below, but I can’t bring myself to do it for fear of ruining the natural look of it.
A larger pantry though, would allow for more stock. To be perfectly honest, Dear Reader, not having food supplies on hand is the single most hated thing about being a food blogger – but, that could be just me. It seems there’s never a convenient time to shop for pantry ingredients when it comes to having help from John.e or McKenna.
I understand. Grocery shopping isn’t their thing, but I actually quite enjoy it. I just don’t like having to struggle with heavy grocery bags – not only the walk home from the store, but getting through two sets of lobby doors in our building, down the hall to the elevator, and then down the hall to our apartment door. It wipes me out!
So, you see, a larger pantry would help to eliminate the need to re-stock so often. It might not be so hard to get one of them to go grocery shopping with me if we didn’t need to do it so regularly.
Oh no – I’ve rambled on an on again without actually saying much about this Vegetable Farro Soup. Truth be told, I made three soups the day I made this one. Sometimes, I’ll do things like that on the weekend, because soups can keep well in the fridge and can be frozen too – this soup is no exception.
Of all three soups, this one was my favourite. Hearty – yes; thick – yes; filling – absolutely! But, more importantly, this soup is delicious! Between the three of us, we ate all of it in one meal, with the exception of the soup I had portioned out for our neighbour, Jack.
Try this soup – you won’t regret it. And, if you don’t have farro, add barley or rice. Just be sure to use the quick cook version of farro or barley, not the stuff you need to boil for 45 minutes. And, if you use rice, use the minute or quick cook version of that as well.
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Vegetable Farro Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 3 stalks celery, finely diced
- 4 large carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- 2 cups farro, quick cook (see post for details)
- 15 ounces canned lentils, drained and rinsed
- 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes
- 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped (can use dried)
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, over medium heat, add the olive oil, onions, celery, and carrots. Saute for 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir into the vegetables and cook for two minutes.
- Add the canned tomatoes and vegetable stock. Stir to combine. Place a lid on the pot and cook for 30-35 minutes, until carrots are almost cooked.
- Stir in the farro and lentils. Place the lid back on the pot and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
- Add the parsley, and stir it into the soup. Turn the heat off and let the soup sit for 5 minutes.
- Serve and garnish with more parsley, if desired.
Nutrition
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Rachelle McCann says
I’m going to try this in my Instant Pot with regular farro for 15 min. I’ve used the regular farro in cabbage soup in the instant pot and it came out perfectly.
Lori Fox says
Delicious and healthy!!
Darlene says
I did make the recipe, cut back on some ingredients due to being one person this week in the home! Only thing i didnt understand was how to cook the farro – however goggle helped out.
Great taste!