Fresh Tomato Soup With Basil and Farro

By Melissa Clark

Fresh Tomato Soup With Basil and Farro
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
1½ hours
Rating
5(490)
Notes
Read community notes

You overbought fresh tomatoes at the farmers' market and now you're left with a pile of overly-soft, rapidly-ripening fruit. What to do? Make a hearty, vegetable-based soup with those mushy tomatoes puréed into satiny sweetness. To mimic the creaminess of many tomato soup recipes, I often blend softly stewed tomatoes with a grain, in this case, farro. It adds an earthy flavor, and body, to make a tomato soup with bona fide stick-to-your ribs inclinations.

Featured in: A Dinner Party That’s Warm, Welcoming and Meatless

Learn: How to Make Soup

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: give recipes to anyone
    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.
    Subscribe

  • Print Options

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:6 small servings
  • 1½tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon kosher salt, more as needed
  • 1½cups farro
  • 3large sprigs basil, stems and leaves separated
  • 3tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for drizzling
  • 4garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
  • 1large leek, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
  • 3¼pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into wedges
  • Black pepper, to taste
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

268 calories; 8 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 44 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 9 grams protein; 741 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Pour 8 cups cold water and 1½ tablespoons salt into a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower heat to medium, add the farro and basil stems, and cook until grains are tender but still a little chewy, about 25 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid.

  2. Step 2

    Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant and golden, about 2 minutes. Stir in the leek and a pinch of salt. Reduce the heat to medium and cook leeks until soft, about 5 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Stir in the tomatoes, ½ teaspoon salt and 1 cup reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a simmer. Cook until the tomatoes have completely fallen apart, about 30 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Using an immersion blender, blender or food processor, purée the tomato mixture until smooth (you may have to do this in batches). Add half the farro and pulse until the grains are broken down and the soup is a chunky purée. Stir in the remaining farro. If the soup seems thick, add more cooking liquid. Taste and add more salt if needed. Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Drizzle with oil; top generously with black pepper and torn basil leaves.

Ratings

5 out of 5
490 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.

Cooking Notes

Eileen

So you don't remove the tomato skins or seeds?

Yvette

I agree that there is way more farro than needed. I wound up using only half the cooked farro and I still needed to add quite a bit of extra cooking liquid to get the consistency even remotely soup-like (and I love very thick chunky soup). But very tasty all in all. Grated some parmigiano reggiano over the top as well.

Ruth K Meyer

That's why you use an immersion blender. The skin is full of vitamins and if you aren't troubled by seeds, so are they.

Jean

Fabulous. ~1/2 hr. active work; makes about 2 qts, ~8 servings.

KathZ

Fabulous soup, though I cut back on the farro to make the consistency less porridge-like. Freezes well.

BERFB

This is a delicious, hearty, one pot meal. The combination of a few simple ingredients works perfectly. I used a large onion instead of the leek. Don't forget the swirl of olive oil and fresh basil at the end, it really heightens the flavours. This will be a go to weeknight recipe in our house!

Dominic

This soup is excellent. I made it tonight, and it's the perfect Friday dinner during Lent. It's incredible how much flavor comes from the limited ingredients. Very easy to make.

NK in Brussels

Liked this. My variations: cooked the farro in chicken stock and basil stems (used Better than Boullion, so cut back on the salt). Added cayenne as I blended it. Followed the tip below and topped it with Parmesan, as well as the basil leaves. Next time, will also sprinkle toasted pine nuts or slivered almonds.

blisssu

The luscious flavor of this soup demands fully ripe tomatoes harvested at season's peak, as mine were. Soups from canned tomatoes might quiet a winter longing when good fresh fruit is not available, but they can't approach a sublime fresh tomato concoction like this one. I almost used leftover rice but would have missed farro's distinctive crunch and pop. Half the oil was plenty, I thought.

Janet

I had a load of fresh tomatoes from my garden that I needed to use — a mix of cherries and slicing tomatoes. Modifications were made, not because the recipe isn’t perfect as is, but to accommodate what I had on hand. Therefore, onion instead of a leek, and a half cup of bulgar wheat instead of faro. It all turned out awesome and delicious.

CHD

Has anyone tried freezing this? Does it impact the texture of the farro?

Laurie

Half farro made better soup. Added the rest; then called it bowl of farro with tomatoes! Could garnish as a pasta…

rae__db

Very easy to make and a great way to use up the tomatoes. I found it virtually flavorless despite tasting and salting to taste.

lizzy g

Delish and easy! Used 10-minute farro, definitely did not need more than 3/4 cup.

Josie

Delicious! Great use of extra tomatoes (turned out great with a mix of overly ripe late summer tomatoes and not quite ripe early fall ones). Grated some fresh parm on top for extra decadence.

Robin

I’ve been making this soup for years, it’s delicious, but the one thing that always bothered me were the small pieces of skin in the soup. The last few times I made it I blanched the tomatoes to remove the skins. So much better!

Bruce

Added a bit of balsamic vinegar to finish…gave it a little pizzazz.

Dustin

Add pinch of chili flakes during garlic browning

Amanda

This is a great soup that I have made loads of times. Make sure, particularly in the winter, that you take extra time to find ripe tomatoes at the market. It makes a huge difference to the taste.

Mike

Delicious! Made per recipe and it came out perfect! To those who thought it too chunky or “porridge like” perhaps you missed the step where you immersion blend half the farro with the tomato? Looking forward to making this again. Simple, healthy and delicious!!

danny

I did not have Ferro on hand so I used Barley. I cooked following the same instruction. It’s very delicious.

Es

This made a lot of soup! I had a pile of end-of-summer tomatoes, all colors, all a bit bruised, needing to be used. I cut them up, threw out anything t5hat looked icky, and put them in the pot. I found the amount of farro; soup was thick and luscious. I suggest using white pepper instead of black.

donny

In place of farro I used leftover brown rice which had the necessary tooth. I also sautéed some sliced leek and shiitake mushrooms in butter & EVO and added the rest of the rice to crisp up a bit and served with a dollop of sour cream. Very nice!!

Zeynep L

This was good while hot but it was so much better when chilled. Especially for a hot summer day. We make a cold yogurt and farro soup where I’m from in Turkey and this had the refreshing and filling quality of that when cold.

Private notes are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

Advertisement

or to save this recipe.

More From Tomato Soup Recipes

More Recipes From Melissa Clark

Cooking Guides