Winter Greens Soup Recipe
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The combination of farro, potatoes, beans, and winter greens makes for a filling soup that’s packed with flavor. It’s a great dish to turn to during the cold months when you’ve had more than enough braised food but still want something substantial and warming.
What to buy: A European strain of spelt, farro is an ancient cereal grain that has been used in cooking for thousands of years. It has a nutty flavor and a chewy texture that add a great dimension to this soup. It’s often found in the bulk section of health food stores, but if you’re having a hard time finding it you can omit it or substitute barley.
Game plan: The farro and beans can be cooked up to 1 day ahead. Refrigerate them in a covered container until ready to use.
For a slacker solution, you can substitute drained canned garbanzo beans if you want to save some time.
This recipe was featured as part of our Supercharge with Superfoods photo gallery.
- 2 cups dried farro
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 5 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 medium white onion, medium dice (about 1 cup)
- 1 large carrot, medium dice (about 1/2 cup)
- 12 medium red potatoes, such as Red Bliss (about 3 pounds), coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
- 1 medium bay leaf
- 3 cups cooked, drained garbanzo beans
- 1 bunch Swiss chard, leaves removed from stems and coarsely chopped (about 8 cups packed)
- 1 bunch Tuscan kale, leaves removed from stems and coarsely chopped (about 6 cups packed)
- 3 cups canned high-quality chopped tomatoes, such as Pomi
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 6 cups (1 1/2 quarts) low-sodium chicken broth
- Soak farro in 6 cups of water at least 8 hours or overnight.
- Transfer farro and soaking water to a large pot, add salt, and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Cook until farro is tender and chewy, about 45 to 60 minutes. Drain and reserve farro.
- Place olive oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. When it shimmers, add garlic, onion, and carrot. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper and cook until vegetables are tender and onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add farro, potatoes, herbs, and garbanzo beans and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir mixture so that everything gets coated in oil and herbs.
- Add chard and kale to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until greens start to let off liquid and shrink in size, about 10 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Add chicken broth (the vegetable mix should be just covered by the liquid—if there is not enough, add some water) and bring to a simmer. Simmer, partially covered, until potatoes are cooked through, about 35 to 40 minutes. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, remove bay leaf, and serve.
Dude, I totally had the same experience with the barley. It has taken over my soup. My "soup" now has the consistency of mashed potatoes (but admittedly, is still delicious).Every time I look, my "soup" gets a little bigger.
Is this how the movie "The Blob" started?
do you use the stems and leaves of the kale and chard or just the leaves?
I agree with Thitstone -- Though after a hard day teaching or one of those days that get away from you requires a nice stock -- and Swanson is as good as any -- but if you notice I said substitute wine for the chicken broth -- and Chicken Broth had many anti-viral and immune system kickers in them -- PubMed [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez ] has 90 entries for chicken broth and only 9 entries for winter greens, though, as cooks, and common sense we know that there should be the opposite correlation -- more for winter greens and fewer for chicken soup. The British 'cold study, coming up 50 years old reasonably soon, has show only a few thing really work early-on treatment for viral colds: a bath as long and hot as you can stand to heat of your core body temp and make your body hostile to virals, and -- ANY KIND OF CHICKEN SOUP -- I find that hard to believe -- but they say -- hand crafted home made chicken soup, powdered soup to soup in a can -- kick-starts your immune system, so chicken soup is good for you -- but a nice red wine may be good for your heart and all, but hot peppers is another immune system kick starter -- as are mushrooms -- the more flavorful, the more it Kicks A on a virus.
If you read the recipe -- add some salt -- and what do you have? Veggie broth -- but many of my friends are vegans -- VERY difficult to cook for - and the raw vegans are the worst! --
HOWever yo look at tit Thjitdstone is right -- I rarely 'clean' a plate into he sink -- I'll clean it into a soup stock dish and cook it under pressure for hours and hours -- so all those broken chicken bones, or spare ribs, or what ever is left over sterilizes itself -- and gives up the flavor and the marrow -- and kills any cold but that someone might have and pass on to you -- it TOTAL RECYCLING. With a good pressure cooker -- you re doing about EXACTLY the same as autoclave -- doesn't matter if it's a bone that's been in our mouth, or a scalpel that's been cutting out some diseased tissue -- it's just as clean.
AN has a LOT more flavor.
ALL HAIL THITDSTONE!
iT A SIGN THAT POINTS TO TRUTH, BUT IS NOT TRUTH QUITE YET . . .
THANK YOU, Thidstone -- I'll ue chicke broth when I have the flue and need a soup -- and pull out a frozen bag of stock when I feel better and feel like I can wait that extra 5 mnutes -- I know five minutes doen't sound like a lot -- and it's not, until you feel just pukey and all you want is some flavor with greens that you can clean up with in the next moring or two.
thank you for pointing that out -- it never dawned on me -- and GARLIC --- LOTS OF GARLIC -- when in doubt if a 'clove' is the bunch or a tiny sliver near the center of a bunch just remember a clove is the entire bunch and, trust us, everything doesn't turn out to taste like Garlic, it tastes like healing - (and yes, PubMed. see reference page above === it is THE definitive library for all things medical for the planet -- says what I just said -- it's better than just plain good for you -- it does stiff for you that we don't even understand yet! only that it work). Avoid burning it after you chopp it - too mjch garlic -- add some olive oil -- it's that easy to dilute and the good stuff stays, and doesn't boil off with the water when it turns to super-heated steam.
For everything there's a time, trun, turn, turn, turn, ==== amd the time for cjhicken broth is in a plastic bag with a red tie for exceptional -- soup -- or a blue tie for "Ok, Ok, -- it's chicken broth, big deal!" and a white tage for '' needs sometining i didn't have when I made it, or it m ight jut meed a little salt, but n any case it's not completely done yet!
paul who was equal owwer and head cook in pastaria before past as cool.
At first glance, this one looked good then dropped thru the grate into mediocrity - why the HECK would the recipe call for chicken broth???????? That's just the thing to make it taste like every other soup. And, it overpowers the delicate flavors blend that could otherwise be achieved here. ANY soup recipe using chicken broth ends up tasting like, well, um..chicken broth!! With whatever the remaining ingredients may be then becoming just "visual effects". So, why then even bother? It's like eating soup that could be made at McDonald's.
Good veg. stock is not hard to come by and it's also easy enough to make. (and save your damned chicken broth for makin' chicken soup or arterial plaque).
I think this soup keeps the flue and colds away! -- red, green Tabasco, and a little Cayenne, scotch bonnet splashes, Oh and several vinegars -- to keep the oxidation down so you get to keep all the vitamins before they break apart in the heat -- That's what I think. And a pot will last you several days. it will need salt. And sometimes I add wine instead of chicken stock from a can. Remember cooking stats when the pressure knob pops up. Kuhn Rikon is silent so set a timer or you'll forget it until it's absolute MUSH -- which is good too!
Barley will soak up ALL -- let me say that again ***!!!ALL!!!*** the juice in the soup over night like pasta -- add it ONLY to what you will be using. Also, to keep onion flavor, finely chop onion, put it in the bottom of your bowl, add soup -- let stand or sip from the top as it cools, the onion will release it's flavor -- white sweet onions are best, but ANY onion, even yellow will work, just chop it fine. You can often find bags of 'southern greens' or 'winter greens' - they have mustard, kale, chard, etc in it so you don't have a lot of left overs. parsnips and rutabagas and turnips beets and beet greens are wonderful additions to the potatoes. I use a pressure cooker, a Kuhn Rikon 7 liter -- for about half an hour or so, and it's soup -- to make ABSOLUTELY sure that your parsnips cook all the way through their sometimes woody center, half them and then chop them into half circles this will make sure that 30 minutes will absolutely cook th centers. And don't forget you spinach -- whole leaf, cut or not, it shrinks down. and if you want wedge a cabbage making sure you keep the white center on each wedge to hold it together -- and you REALLY have 'green soup' -- And it never hurts to add some butter nut squash too -- and I'd put in more carrots chipped into 1.5 - 2 inch sections. this adds more 'sweet' to the soup. And to finish it off -- add several 'hot sauces' -- not too much -- but enouh to warm your mouth so you want more when the warmth begins to fade -- remember -- hot is a flavor, not a contest!
Any suggestions for a farro sub for the gluten averse?
kay thanks =D
Of course you can use vegetable broth, just make sure you taste the soup and adjust the salt and pepper as necessary. Chicken broth tends to be saltier.
I'm a pescatarian, but this soup has chicken broth in it, can you substitute the chicken for a vegetable broth or does that ruin it?
1. why of course you can substitute parsnips or turnips, but it will change the flavor - what about trying jeruselem artichoke instead?
2. Kale is always good in soup, or simply fresh spinach... or cabbage, even
3. italian sausage or pulled pork, maybe sautee the carrots and things w/ a bit of bacon for flavor...
This sounds like a delicious mingling of flavors.
A couple questions:
1. Can the potatoes be substituted with parsnips or turnips for carb-conscious people?
2 . Can the Swiss chard be substituted with escarole? I haven't had much luck in the past with Swiss chard- something about the back flavor.
3. If I wanted to add meat, what would you recommend?