Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup
This Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup will warm you through. It’s packed with fresh veggies, red lentils and hearty farro!
Right after I had my oldest daughter Zoe I hit a wall. I was EXHAUSTED. I wasn’t one of those people who loved the newborn phase. I wish I did…but I was just so tired. We ended up hiring some help for a couple of weeks. This angel swooped into my house, got Zoe to sleep, and she took care of me too. She made me nap, helped me with feeding, swaddling, bathing…all the new stuff. And she made me this Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup. I can’t even begin to tell you how this soup saved me. I was drowning, and I think this soup brought me back. It’s just perfect.
Watch how to make it
Ingredients in Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup
I’ve changed this recipe up a bit to give it my own twist, but it’s packed with good-for-you, feel good foods. This is perfect to make for your family on a day when you need a pick me up, but it’s also just right if you have a friend or neighbor who needs some love and healing. Look at this ingredient list and you’ll just feel the warmth!
- Onion
- Zucchini
- Carrots
- From the spice cabinet: salt, pepper, turmeric, and cumin
- Veggie broth
- Quick cook farro (if you can find it, otherwise regular farro is fine)
- Red lentils
- Kale or spinach (you know how much I love Lacinato kale!)
- A squeeze of fresh lemon juice
(For tips on the best kind of pots & pans to use, check out this post on the best types of cookware for your kitchen!)
The Home Cook’s Guide to Salt
Learn about the basics of salt, plus the best salt for cooking (hint: itโs Kosher salt!) with this easy-to-understand guide to salt for home cooks.
I had to top this perfect soup with garlic toasted breadcrumbs because they are everything! I promise you won’t regret making a batch. You could also serve it with Comfort Corn Bread with Whipped Honey Butter or a Classic Caesar Salad with Homemade Dressing.
Food photography by Ashley Cuoco
PrintHealing Turmeric Lentil and Farro Soup
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Healing Turmeric Lentil & Farro Soup will warm you through. It’s packed with fresh veggies, red lentils and hearty farro!
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 (or regular farro is fine)
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Notes
This recipe is flexible. You can use all red lentils, all farro, or sub with brown rice, white rice, quinoa or whatever grain you like. All grains cook at different speeds, so adjust cooking time accordingly.ย
Agree! This soup is delicious! It was easy to make, especially if you have a food processor to chop veggies. I am not a big fan of turmeric however we try to incorporate it into dishes for health benefits. The turmeric in this soup blends so well with the cumin and the lemon is a perfect touch at the end.
Very satisfying. So happy to add this to our soup rotation. One pot meal. Thank you.
You are so welcome, glad you liked it!
Delicious
Thank you!
Yes!! Laney!! This soup IS healing. Seriously delicious. So easy to make. Thank you for another winner.
Just finished the third double batch of this terrific soup. We use half and freeze half. I’ve also given to friends and neighbors who also loved it.
So nice of you to give to friends!
This is my absolute favorite soup! Love love love it! Delicious, nutritious and easy to prepare. It is on constant meal rotation in my house. Thanks, Laney, for a wonderful recipe!
Thank you Naomi! So happy you love it!
Delicious, nourishing, and healthy recipe. I make it every time I’m not feeling well. (And also when I am!) Thanks Laney!
The best! Thanks Tammy!
This recipe is delicious. I used red lentils and farro, added chopped Celery to the veggie mix. The fresh lemon juice at the end really brightens the soup up. Thank you for sharing this! I’ll be making this regularly.
Thank you Jessica!
This soup is fantastic. It tastes like comfort. I made it for my lunches this week and it will be in my regular rotation.
One of my favorites too!
This is delicious and flexible. There are some sensitive stomachs in this house so I had to leave out the alliums. I subbed in extra grated carrot and some zest from the lemon. It was probably sweeter than the original flavor profile but it was still delicious. I’ve also made it without spinach when I didn’t have it on hand, and I’ve gotten by with less broth, making it less soupy but still filling. The leftovers make a great breakfast porridge.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I thought I had a favorite lentil soup, but will add this to my rotation also! The farro gives it a nice texture. I find it helpful to keep frozen spinach and kale on hand so itโs easy to whip up something like this with mostly stuff you have on hand.
That’s a great tip!
Seriously so good! I only had baby carrots so I didnโt shred them, just cut them thin. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly and luckily already had all the ingredients on hand. Canโt wait to make it again!
Curious if youโve tried to freeze this because Iโd love to make a giant batch to keep on hand through the colder months. Thanks!
Yes, you can absolutely freeze this soup!! What a treat to have on hand!
I want to make this on the stove but we are renovating our kitchen. I only have the Instapot and ovens to work with. Can I do this in the instant pot on sautรฉ? Or should I wait till my cooktop arrives?
I think that should be just fine!
Love this recipe! I used leftover cooked green lentils and farro. So this recipe came together quick! I didnโt have zucchini so I left it out. Surprisingly the soup turned out delicious!
Glad it still turned out for you!
Super simple and super delicious. I’ve never grated onions and veggies before and it added a nice texture. The lemon really adds a pop.
Yes, love the texture of it too!
This soup is very delicious. I have been a bit under the weather and this was perfect. I will definitely be making this soup again. Thanks for a great recipe.
You’re so welcome and feel better soon!!
Laney,
This soup is SO delicious!!! I have a newborn at home and it was THE perfect postpartum dish – full of flavor and healthy ingredients. I doubled it so we had leftovers (which were still yummy two days later). Even our pickiest eaters in the house enjoyed it! Thank you so much! Excited to try your tumeric garlic rice this week๐
Thank you Julie!!! SO happy you love it as much as we do!
Deeeee-licious! Thank you so much for this recipe! Bright, flavorful, yummy!
You are so welcome!!
Plan on making this soup, what is the nutritional info, please?
This soup was outstanding! I canโt figure out why more people have not tried it! I did add 2 cloves of garlic to the other veggies while they were sautรฉing and increased the broth to 6 cups. Served it with warm Naan bread and added vegan sausage slices to each bowl that I sautรฉed in a pan. Donโt skip the bread crumbs and lemon in each bowl. Restaurant quality!
Thank you Susan!! Warm Naan sounds amazing with it!!
This is the soup we make when the weather starts to turn, when someone starts feeling yucky or when we just want to feel the goodness filling up our bodies. I double the veggies, use my own chicken stock and sometimes forget the kale, but it is always delicious! I am a texture person, so the breadcrumbs are a huge win for me…or is it the garlic & olive oil combo…hmmmm- either way, a delightful topping! Have been making a few years now. Thank you!
I love this, Jen! Thank you for sharing and leaving a review!
I am definitely going to try this soup. Turmeric is widely used in Ayurveda (Ancient Indian Medication). I have learnt few recipes that are enriched with therapeutical herbs and spices from iahas.com but this one looks really tasty and healthy.
I hope you love it!
Simply delicious!
I haven’t tried the breadcrumbs but the soup is so easy and so good!!!
Thanks for sharing!
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!!
I’m so happy you love it Cindy!
This recipe is now in my regular rotation!
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.
Just made this. Youโre right. Itโs magic. Swapped farrow for wild rice because I couldnโt find any. And spinach for kale. This is going to be on my familyโs favorites list!!
hooray!
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.
Excellent. Subbed barley for the Farro because itโs what I had. And maybe sprinkled a little Parmesan on top of it all. Donโt skip the bread crumbs! It had so much depth of flavor, and was healthy to top it off!
Coming off Chemo & daughter suggested this soup. This is 5th day having it, find it very comforting!
I’m so happy to hear this ?
Amazing even without zucchini or bread crumbs !!
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!
it’s perfect for the Beth!
How many calories is one serving? I absolutely love this soup, I just want to be able to log it into my FitBit
I’m not sure. You would have to enter in the ingredients.
Can you use green Lentils I stead of red?
Yes, it will just take longer to cook
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 Iโve 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 โค๏ธ
This made my day! I’m so glad you love it!!
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?
I think you can totally freeze it!
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.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! One of my favorites!
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.
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
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!
So glad you enjoyed it!
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
SO glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately I don’t include nutritional info, but you’re welcome to input the ingredients in an online calculator. ๐
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!
SO glad you enjoyed!
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!!!!
I love this so much!!!! I’m so happy you enjoyed it Shannon!
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!
Omg I love this so much!! I can’t wait to try this version!
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!
Yay!! Love that!!
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!
Oh that makes me so happy! I’m so glad you enjoy it. Sounds so cozy and perfect!
Just made this – so delish. Reminds me of a soup my grandmother used to make. So comforting. Thank you!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
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.
Oh I love that swap! So glad you liked it!
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.
Im so happy you loved this! It’s one of my all time faves!
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.
Absolutely! I’ve also had people add shrimp and it’s great
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!
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!
I’m so glad! It’s one of my favorites as well!
So I don’t have the quick cook farro on hand. How much longer would you cook the soup with just the regular farro?
I think regular farro takes about 30-40 minutes? So might need to simmer about that long until it’s cooked through.
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!
Oh yay!! Love the substitutions you made also! So happy you loved it ๐
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.
Sounds delish!! SO glad you love it.
How to adapt recipe for instant pot and using sprouted lentils.
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.
I’m SO happy everyone loved it!! Yes, doubling is the way to go!!
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.
I’m so glad you and your family loved it! It’s hands down my favorite feel good soup of all time!
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!
I’m SO happy you liked this soup! Isn’t it just the best!?! Love your variation with the bread crumbs too ๐