With barely a chill in the air I was ready to cook up a batch of soup. I love soup – any kind. Tomato. Broth based. Creamy. Preferably chunky. Hot. Cold. You get the idea.
I love vegetable soup and Ellie Krieger has a dynamite Tuscan Vegetable Soup that I often serve with bread and salad. I wanted a vegetable soup that remained as light and feel-good healthy as Ms. Krieger’s yet was a bit more substantial and chunky.
Chunky Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3 medium carrots, diced
- 3 celery stalks, diced
- 1 zucchini, cubed
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 can diced or cherry tomatoes (28 oz.)
- 4 cups water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 can navy beans (15-ounce), drained and rinsed
- ½ cup farro
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil until shimmering.
- Add onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper.
- Cook vegetables, stirring frequently, until onions become slightly translucent and vegetables are just beginning to cook, about 5-8 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, water and bay leaf. Bring soup to a boil then reduce to simmer and cook for 15 minutes or until carrots are fork tender.
- Add farro and beans, cover and simmer until farro is tender, about 15 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste, remove bay leaf and serve hot.
Notes
I call for dicing your vegetables. I would say I like to “large” dice because as I said, I like my soup chunky. Cut depending on what you like, if you like your veggies cut smaller, cut down on simmer time about 5-10 minutes.
I call for dried herbs because this is what people have on hand most often. I like to swap out fresh for dried, I just up the parsley to three tablespoons chopped. Leave fresh basil out until right before serving. Other fresh herbs that are great in this soup include rosemary, thyme and sage.
