Winter-Warming, Freezer-Friendly, Pantry-Cleaning Soup
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Author Notes: Adapted pretty extensively from Adapted from Zuppe by Mona Talbott. (Hers is made with cannellini or cranberry beans instead; it suggests but does not include the farro and barley.) Chickpea-cooking technique adapted from Melissa Clark. - Nicholas
Serves 6-8
- 1 pound chickpeas, dried
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 onions, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 1 cup crushed tomatoes
- 1 bunch kale, preferably Tuscan
- 3/4 cups pearl barley (or use a cup and a half and no farro)
- 3/4 cups farro (or use a cup and a half and no barley)
- Soak the dried chickpeas in plenty of cold water overnight or for at least six hours. Drain the plumped chickpeas and add them to a large pot along with about 10 cups water. Also add: the rosemary sprigs, the bay leaf, a crushed clove of garlic, 1/3 cup olive oil and a tablespoon of salt. If you have a parmesan rind, add that too. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for an hour or so, or until tender; add more water along the way if too much boils off. Do not drain, but remove the rind, the rosemary, the garlic, and the bay leaf.
- Meanwhile, warm two or three tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan and then add the diced onions and carrots. Sweat until soft; season with salt. Then chop the remaining garlic and add it and the tomatoes. Cook for 5 or 10 more minutes and then add the mixture to the chickpea pot.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. (You can do this while the chickpeas are cooking.) Destem the kale and cut the stem into thin slices; put aside. Roughly chop the leaves. Add the stem to the boiling water; boil for 2 minutes. Then add the leaves and boil for another 3 minutes. Drain and then cool. Chop the kale again if you think the leaves look too large for a soup. Add the kale to the chickpea pot. Simmer the whole thing for about 10 minutes.
- Bring another pot of salted water to a boil. (You can do this while the chickpeas are cooking, too, or after you finish the kale.) Add the barley and farro (or just barley or just farro). Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until tender. Drain the grains but keep the barley/farro water.
- When the chickpea mixture has simmered for 10 minutes, add the farro/barley and simmer for another 5. If the soup looks too much like stew, thin it with your reserved barley/farro water. Season with salt. Serve with crushed chili flakes and/or parmesan.
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
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11 days ago denise&food
Made this yesterday and it is delicious. The only change I made was using spinach instead of kale and added it to the finished soup. Very hearty vegetarian soup. And extremely economical!
3 months ago catydid
To answer Miche's question, I put the chopped Kale directly into the simmering beans for a bit before adding the tomato/carrot/onion mixture. So no extra blanching step. Worked great. Fabulous soup, thanks!!!
3 months ago Alex R.
Nice dish, thanks for sharing. Barley & farro are very delicious additions. Found the process of making the soup a little cumbersome - would be nice to streamline it a bit (I did use the kale cooking liquid for grains at least). I used a pressure cooker on the beans, which was fast but meant that I didn't have all the cooking liquid I needed - ended up adding water in at the end. Still tasted pretty good though next time hope to figure out a better way.
Served with some Sriracha and a squeeze of lemon. Quite nice. Will add some sausage to the next bowl!
4 months ago Daria Faulkner
We ate most of it and froze the rest. Its very good! My husband normally likes having some sort of meat in his meal, but he enjoyed this one a lot!
4 months ago Lucytron
Do you freeze the fully assembled soup? If so, how does the reheat affect the texture of the kale/grains? If not, in what form should the soup be frozen?
4 months ago Nicholas
Just freeze the finished soup. It works!
4 months ago Pamela731
This sounds fantastic. I'm trying to find hearty-healthy recipes and soups are always a favorite to make. Thanks
4 months ago Miche
What's the reason for blanching the kale before adding to the pot of soup? I would think you'd lose some of the flavor. I understand re: the grains that it's to control the thickness of the soup, but I'd probably just throw 'em into the pot too.
4 months ago Nicholas
I admit to shamelessly following Mona Talbott's directions here. But I assume throwing the kale in directly would be a-okay.
4 months ago Stormin9
This needs some ham, sausage or chicken.
4 months ago Mimust
Fantastic, full flavor, hearty soup. Perfect for this week's below zero forecast. I used my immersion blender on about 1/4 of the chickpeas to give the broth a little more body, and was pleased with the result.