This rustic vegetarian soup is cozy, nourishing and deeply delicious. Inspired by Italian peasant cooking, it’s crafted from humble ingredients like sweet carrots, chewy farro, and creamy white beans.
It’s hearty enough for lunch or dinner and delivers serious nutritional staying power. You'll get plenty of fiber and plant-based protein with benefits for your bones, heart, and belly.
This simple, easy soup is a warming comfort fix for cold nights!
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
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💖What You'll Love About This Soup
A vegetarian soup/stew with serious heft for lunch or dinner.
🥕The appealing sweetness of carrots (and tomato paste) contrasts beautifully with the chewiness of the farro and the creaminess of the beans.
🩻Myriad of health benefits for bones, digestion, heart, and overall wellness.
💪🏼Complete vegetarian protein since grains are combined with legumes.
🌿One simple swap makes it vegan.
Ingredients needed + notes
- Onions
- Carrots
- Celery
- Garlic
- Olive oil
- Bay leaf
- Tomato paste
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Farro
- Canned tomatoes, petite diced or chopped, no salt
- Broth, vegetable, low sodium
- Water
- Parmesan rind
Farro (affiliate link): Please don't use quick-cooking farro in this recipe. If the package says "cooks in 10 minutes," then the farro has been pre-cooked. Whole or pearled farro is fine to use, however.
Keep in mind that whole farro will take about 10 minutes longer to soften than pearled farro. Be sure and rinse it to remove any dust before you add it to the soup.
Canned tomatoes: I like the small size of petite diced, but larger pieces work just as well.
Parmesan rind: This adds tremendous flavor as well as protein and sodium. It may dissolve into the soup depending on the source. Italian-sourced Parmigiano-Reggiano rinds will remain whole, but less aged and softer varieties will melt into the soup.
Vegans can leave out the rind and sprinkle the soup with nutritional yeast before serving.
👨🏼🍳How to make it
Wash your hands, lathering with soap and rinsing with running water for 20 seconds, before starting.
1️⃣Prep the veggies. Dice the onion and celery and slice the carrots. Mince the garlic. Rinse the farro in a colander and set it aside.
2️⃣Heat the olive oil in a 5-quart pot and cook the onion-carrots-celery until softened.
3️⃣Add the garlic and cook for 30 to 60 seconds, until fragrant.
Drop in the bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Stir in the tomato paste, lowering heat to prevent burning.
4️⃣Pour in the rinsed farro and stir to combine with vegetable-tomato paste mixture, cooking briefly.
5️⃣Add the tomatoes, broth, and Parmesan rind stirring up any stuck bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil and stir. Lower heat, and partially cover. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
(Dropping in the Parmesan rind to release flavor as the soup simmers.)
6️⃣Add beans, and also any cooked meat (if desired), and simmer for 10 to 20 more minutes, until farro is soft.
Note: This photo is from a batch of soup tested in a different kitchen.
7️⃣Serve in large bowls or mug, with an ample shower of chopped parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil.
Tips for cooking and storing
There is no cooking wizardry in this simple, rustic soup. You could probably shave about 15 minutes from the total cook time by using an Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Instructions: Add the tomatoes, broth, Parmesan rind, beans, and any meat after you use the Saute function to soften the veggies and mix them with tomato paste and seasonings.
Cook at pressure for 2 minutes before opening the vent to release the steam. When the float valve drops on top of the IP, the farro should be tender and chewy and the soup will be ready to serve.
This soup stores well, but the farro absorbs broth as it sits. You'll need to add more when reheating to make it soupy, and the farro may become very soft.
Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days. Freeze for up to 3 months.
I prefer a glass container for soup storage (affiliate link) and these tall 3-cup containers with lids are great for the fridge. No worries about chemical contamination if reheating in the microwave.
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For the freezer, silicone containers that form serving bricks (or large rectangular ice cubes) are convenient and maximize storage space. Pop the frozen soup bricks out and store in zip bags until needed.
Serving suggestions & Variations
A crusty, excellent loaf of bread is a must with this soup. Consider making cheese toasts to pair with the soup. This combo is a big win for bone health.
Leafy greens: Another way to increase this soup's bone-boosting powers is to add leafy greens, which have vitamin K as well as magnesium and calcium.
Shredded or sliced kale and Swiss chard are excellent choices. Baby kale, spinach, and arugula are easy adds since they don't require any prep! Add 3 to 5 cups at the of the cooking time.
Meat: For omnivores (non-vegetarians, Flexitarians), leftover cooked meat is another tasty way to up the nutrition of the soup with extra protein—another win for bones that also builds muscle.
Beef, a classic with barley and farro, is especially complementary to the flavors in the soup. Chicken is good, too, and you can't go wrong with pork products like pancetta and bacon though I always hesitate to recommend cured meats.
While cured meats add flavor, they should be enjoyed occasionally due to their nutritional downsides.
What makes this soup healthy?
Even without added greens or meats, this vegetarian bowlful has plenty to recommend it for your health.
A generous serving provides 12 grams of fiber from the dynamic combo of whole grains (farro), vegetables, and beans, and it's low in fat, especially saturated fat.
This synergy of fiber and low-fat makes it an excellent meal for heart health!
In addition to adding sweetness, carrots add phytochemical carotenoid nutrition. Beta-carotene and lycopene (carotenoids):
- lower the risk of many types of cancer
- improve eye health
- boost immunity
- act preventively for metabolic and chronic diseases
Tomatoes provide another source of lycopene with the addition of vitamin C, which facilitates nutrient absorption.
Celery also has vitamin C, plus K, a bone fortifying vitamin that helps with mineralization (strength) and prevents bone breakdown.
Onions pack quercetin, another antioxidant polyphenol (like carotenoids) that helps with immunity and may offer protection against viruses.
The beans in the soup provide many minerals like potassium (helps with blood pressure) and others: phosphorous, manganese, magnesium (which many people do not get enough of in their food). They also pack iron, important for vegetarians.
A bowl of this soup is a good source of calcium, supplying 13% of your daily needs.
It contains many B vitamins from the grains and beans: thiamin, folate, B6, and riboflavin in particular.
Eating half a cup of beans or legumes per day has been linked to longevity.
Watch the sodium ⚠️
Too much sodium can work against all the positive nutrition found in this kettle of goodness. It can weaken your bones and work against blood pressure.
🧂Sources of sodium in this soup are broth, canned vegetables, Parmesan, and Kosher salt. You can choose low sodium or no salt varieties of broth and canned vegetables. You can also easily make less sodium broth from scratch in an Instant Pot.
Parmesan rinds are not low in salt! This is part of their umami flavor and makes the soup mouthwatering. Other benefits to Parmesan rinds include protein and calcium, so don't skip it unless medically necessary.
Of course, you can use less Kosher salt or no salt. By the way: Did you know Kosher salt has less sodium than fine sea salt?
FAQ
Whole farro, rather than pearled or quick-cooking, would benefit from soaking for at least 45 minutes and up to 2 hours before cooking in the soup broth. Whole farro, with the bran and germ intact, may take longer to soften.
Pearled farro works well in this soup and softens in about 30 minutes. The instructions for this soup are not for quick-cooking farro.
It works beautifully in the Instant Pot. In the slow cooker, it may not have as much flavor unless you cook the vegetables on the stovetop first.
See Cooking Tips and the recipe card for Instant Pot instructions.
That strategy will shave at least 20 minutes of simmering time. Add the cooked farro and the beans at the same time in step 5 and then simmer the soup for 10 minutes to blend flavors.
Other recipes you might like...
If Italian-inspired soups are a favorite, try this Minestrone di Verdure—vegetables, pasta, and beans with an irresistible pesto garnish.
Kale White Bean Salad features the contrast of crunchy kale and creamy white beans with plenty of tasty sunflower and hemp seeds wrapped in a lemony dressing.
The simplest vegetable soup on the blog is Carrot Celery Soup, which is also loaded with carotenoid nutrition. The vegetables are blended for a creamy, bisque-like bowl sparked by the flavor of dill weed.
Farro Soup with Vegetables and White Beans
Equipment
- 1 5-quart saucepan or cocotte
- Measuring cups
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil extra virgin, plus extra for drizzling
- 1 cup onions diced
- 2 cups carrots sliced
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon salt Kosher
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup farro rinsed
- 1 14.5-ounce can tomatoes petite diced or chopped, no salt
- 4 cups broth low sodium
- 1 cup water
- 1 Parmesan rind
- 1 14-ounce can white beans navy beans (small), or cannellini beans (larger). Look for no salt
- 4 ounces cooked beef or chicken optional
- ¼ cup flat leaf parsley chopped
Instructions Start Cooking
- Wash hands thoroughly, lathering with soap and rinsing with running water before beginning prep.
- Dice the onion, slice the carrots, and chop the celery. Mince the garlic. Rinse the farro in a strainer and set aside.1 cup onions, 2 cups carrots, 1 cup celery, 2 teaspoons garlic, 1 cup farro
- Heat the olive oil in a 5-quart pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook on medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until vegetables begin to soften and the oil starts to turn slightly golden (from the carrots).2 Tablespoons olive oil1 cup onions 2 cups carrots 1 cup celery
- Add the garlic and stir for 30 to 60 seconds until fragrant. Drop in the bay leaf and stir in the tomato paste, salt (if using), and pepper. Cook briefly, lowering the heat to prevent burning. 2 teaspoons garlic 1 bay leaf 2 Tablespoons tomato paste ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Pour in the farro. Using a wooden spoon, mix the farro into the vegetable-tomato paste mixture and cook briefly.1 cup farroAdd the tomatoes, broth, water, and Parmesan rind. Bring to a boil and stir well, scraping up any bits on the bottom of the pot. 1 14.5-ounce can tomatoes 4 cups broth 1 cup water 1 Parmesan rind Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the beans and any meat (if desired) and cook for 10 to 20 minutes, until farro is soft.1 14-ounce can white beans
- Serve in large bowls, drizzled with olive oil and showered with chopped flat-leaf parsley.¼ cup flat leaf parsley
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