Life is but a Dish

Easy, approachable recipes for the everyday home cook

Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup

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Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup-5
Let me tell you a little bit about how this soup saved my life.

Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup-6
Well, that’s being a bit dramatic I guess, but at the time, it truly was a lifesaver.

It was about 4 years ago. I had just given birth to my first baby girl, Zoe. She was a tiny little peanut, with an itty bitty cry, and the strength of a warrior. After about a week and a half of being home, I hit that wall as many first time parents do. I was EXHAUSTED. I was not one of those people who “loved the newborn phase”. I wish I was. I was just so damn tired.

We ended up hiring some part time help for a couple of weeks. This angel woman (who came from a recommendation), swooped into my house, got Zoe to sleep, and took care of me unlike I’ve ever been taken care of before. She made me nap, helped me with feeding, swaddling, bathing, you know, all the new stuff.

And she made me this soup.

Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup-4You guys. I can’t even begin to tell you how this soup saved me. I was drowning, and this soup brought me back to life. I know, it sounds crazy. But it was just perfect. The timing and everything.

Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro SoupI’ve changed it up just a bit, to give it my own twist, but it’s packed with good for you, feel good foods. And of course, I had to top it with these garlic toasted breadcrumbs because they are everything!

Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup-2So if you need a little pick me up, or just want a little taste of heaven, make this super easy, joyful, warm your heart soup.

Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup-3

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Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup

★★★★★ 5 from 15 reviews
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Description

A healthy and healing soup packed with fresh veggies, lentils and farro. 

Scale

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 small onion, (grated (about 1 cup))
  • 1 small zucchini, (grated (about 1 cup))
  • 1 cup grated carrots
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 5 cups vegetable broth, (or chicken broth)
  • 1/2 cup quick cook farro, (I use the 10 minute farro from Trader Joes)
  • 1/2 cup red lentils
  • 1 cup chopped kale or spinach
  • Fresh lemon juice

For the garlic breadcrumbs

  • 6–8 slices of french baguette, (cubed)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • Olive oil
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a medium sized pot over medium/high heat. Add the onion, zucchini and carrots and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the salt, pepper, turmeric, and cumin and cook for 2-3 more minutes. You should start to smell the spices toasting.
  2. Stir in the broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling add the farro and lentils and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes or until lentils and farro are cooked through.
  3. Meanwhile, make the breadcrumbs. Add the bread and garlic into a food processor. Pulse until the bread is in small crumbs. Pour onto a baking sheet and toss with a little bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown.
  4. In the last couple of minutes of the soup cooking, add the chopped kale and stir until wilted then squeeze some fresh lemon juice and stir. Serve immediately and top with the toasted breadcrumbs.

Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup-7It’s like a hug in a bowl.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lisa Rose

    I made this soup today as my tummy hasn’t been that great the last few days and oh.em.gee! Was it exactly as you described…a hug in a bowl???? My daughter who is. Very picky eater had 2 servings lol The only change was thT I made my breadcrumbs with what I had ok hand: 3 slices of spelt bread, cubed, smashed 2 garlic cloves, a little Evoo and ghee and threw it all in a gallon size ziploc bag, shook it up and baked at 450 until golden brown. I’ll be eating this again today and will make it again for sure! thank you so much for sharing!

    Reply

    • Life is but a Dish

      I’m SO happy you liked this soup! Isn’t it just the best!?! Love your variation with the bread crumbs too 🙂

  2. Natalie Mines

    My family loved this soup. I loved that it had zucchini in it and my son, who hates zucchini, had no clue! But gave it a thumbs up.

    Reply

    • Life is but a Dish

      I’m so glad you and your family loved it! It’s hands down my favorite feel good soup of all time!

  3. Patricia da Costa

    Busy day running the kids to violin and softball. Came home and quickly made this delicious soup! Just what we needed at the end of busy day. Everybody loved it. The kids are taking the left overs (I doubled the recipe) for lunch tomorrow.

    Reply

  4. Lindsay Jarrett

    This is my favorite easy and quick soup! So warming, and the spices make such a yummy broth.

    Since I’m a sucker for cheese, I love putting a little feta on top instead of breadcrumbs. A little salty goodness.

    Reply

  5. JoDi

    This soup is so good! I used quinoa instead of farro since it’s what I had, and I used about 4 cups of chopped kale just because I love it, and it was delish! Thanks for the great recipe. I’ll be taking this to work for lunch all week. Yum!

    Reply

  6. Vina

    So I don’t have the quick cook farro on hand. How much longer would you cook the soup with just the regular farro?

    Reply

    • Life is but a Dish

      I think regular farro takes about 30-40 minutes? So might need to simmer about that long until it’s cooked through.

  7. Cindy Tanner

    Outstanding! Followed your recipe to the letter. I will be making this soup on a regular basis. So delicious and healthy. Thanks for the great recipe!

    Reply

  8. Cecilia

    My husband is a diabetic so he has to have proten what suggestion I was thinking kalabasa in it, what do u think? Sounds delish.

    Reply

    • Patricia Sucietto

      I’m getting ready to make a double batch of this and I’m so excited. But I’m a novice cook and I’m not sure what oven temp to toast breadcrumbs. Please help!

  9. Kate H

    I knew the instant I read this one that it would be a winner and a keeper. I was so convinced I made a triple batch right away (vegie caveat: I didn’t want the onion to overpower the other flavors, so for my batch I used 3c zucchini, 3c carrots, and 1-1/2c onion ). This recipe is fantastic!

    I used regular farro and put it on to cook (with vegetable broth) in a separate pan while I was getting the rest of the soup ready, then added it with the red lentils per the recipe instructions, worked perfectly.

    Reply

  10. Emma Atkinson

    I love this soup, I made it with Quinoa as I couldn’t find any Farro in my local supermarket but it was really tasty, thanks for the recipe.

    Reply

  12. Kara

    I made this tonight for a perfect cozy Cape Cod Halloween meal, I’ve sampled and I’m having trouble waiting for dinner!
    Yum, thank you!

    Reply

  13. My Ray of Hope

    This was so yummy. My kids (ages 3, 11, 14) ate it up and asked for more. It wa rich, lemony, and filling. Thank you!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  14. joan kramer

    I made this soup today in the Instant Pot with a few variations, and it was by far the best soup I’ve ever had! With no zucchini available, i used a very large onion. First I sauteed the veggies and spices then added broth and used manual setting for 20 min. After a natural release, i took out the immersion blender to thicken the soup (while leaving some carrot chunks). what a winner!

    Reply

  15. shannon coley

    i am a novice cook and i made this soup and WOW!!!!
    i followed it exactly. Easy Peasy. I wasn’t even sure I liked tumeric or farro.
    I do! U will! Make it!!!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  16. Polly

    This soup was well received on my table tonight and hopefully will help to keep my cold at bay. The lentils are creamy and thicken well, and the farro was perfectly chewy, very satisfying. It was a little too salty for our low sodium palates with the broth and the added salt so next time I’ll cut that down. Thanks for this!

    Reply

  17. B

    I made this soup yesterday and my guests and I loved it. Could you please proved nutritional info? I sm specifically interested in calories, fiber and protein. I found your recipe in my weekly emails from Full Plate Living. They highly recommended it and they were right.
    Thank you,
    B

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    • Life is but a Dish

      SO glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately I don’t include nutritional info, but you’re welcome to input the ingredients in an online calculator. 🙂

  18. Mallory

    I made this tonight for myself and my husband and man I loved it. I especially love the lemon juice. That lemon flavor made it seriously difficult for me to stop talking more and more spoonfuls of it after I already had two bowls! Two thumbs up!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  19. Sheri Sellars

    I am a nurse and home alone sick today, feeling quite sorry for myself, I might add. I wanted something nourishing and anti-inflammatory that would not take too much effort, since I am not feeling well, and I stumbled on this recipe on Pinterest. It is perfect! I didn’t bother grating the onion or carrots, just sliced them up since I like a chunky soup. I had everything on hand except zucchini, so I just skipped that part. I stumbled into an interesting add – my husband makes artisan bread and I had a couple pieces of toast on the counter that nobody ate this morning, so used that with some home made ciabatta for the bread crumbs. Turns out the toast had a touch of cinnamon in it. The flavors actually meld beautifully into a lovely Middle Eastern flavor palate. Thanks for this lovely soup. It is indeed a hug in a bowl.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    • Life is but a Dish

      I’m SO happy to hear this story, and sorry you were home sick. But this soup really does heal all! So glad you enjoyed it. xo

  20. Ellen

    I just made this soup tonight. Quck, easy and so incredibly delicious. Flavorful and satisfying, I can not wait to have some with my daughter tomorrow. Thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  21. Shannon

    Planning some post delivery meals and this one sounds amazing! Do you think it would freeze well (before adding the kale)or would the lentils/ Farro get too mushy?

    Reply

  22. Alyse

    Made this Sunday for my step dad who had open heart surgery.. it now reigns as my favorite LIBAD recipe! My husband laughs, because this is the 3rd day in a row I’ve had it for breakfast!!! Followed the recipe with the exception of cutting cumin in 1/2 and adding ground coriander. Family does not live cumin.
    Thank you for sharing ❤️

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  24. Ellie Borzilleri

    How many calories is one serving? I absolutely love this soup, I just want to be able to log it into my FitBit

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  25. Beth Pollack

    My husband has been under the weather for a few days so I was looking for a soup to make for him. He LOVED it, as did my son! If will definitely add this to my rotation! Thanks again for a great recipe!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  28. Diane

    Excellent. Subbed barley for the Farro because it’s what I had. And maybe sprinkled a little Parmesan on top of it all. Don’t skip the bread crumbs! It had so much depth of flavor, and was healthy to top it off!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  29. Liz Hardeman-Fikes

    My hubby and I have made this numerous times and have been blown away by its deliciousness!! Seriously hearty, filling, and flavorful! It’s perfect as is, but we like to do a hybrid of grating and chopping the veggies for more of a chunky texture that we like.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  30. Danielle

    Just made this. You’re right. It’s magic. Swapped farrow for wild rice because I couldn’t find any. And spinach for kale. This is going to be on my family’s favorites list!!

    Reply

  31. Tara

    We make this recipe as part of our monthly rotation. It has such a deep flavor (especially if you make your own broth) and is so comforting. My kiddos love it and it fills up the adult tummies as well.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  33. Cindy

    I’ve made this off and on for years and thought I sent you a review. Well, this is a wonderful, bowlful of goodness!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!!

    Reply

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