Ground Turkey And Farro Soup With Kale

Published 8/2/2024 We love making a big batch of soup on a cold weeknight! This one pot golden curry chicken soup or this delicious Instant Pot hamburger soup are some of our most popular soup recipes! Say hello to the tastiest turkey farro soup you’ve ever set your eyes on. It’s fully equipped with kale, pancetta, ground turkey, mushrooms, garlic, and farro, making it a flavorful, hearty soup you can’t resist. We used ground turkey to amp up the protein while adding additional flavor and fat with pancetta. Farro is such a fun grain to use. It has a nutty flavor and a bit of a bite, but simmers down in a soup quite nicely.

What You Need for This Farro Soup

This soup is definitely a comfort soup with its rich umami flavors and deep and flavorful broth. There are 30 grams of protein per serving in each bowl of soup thanks to the protein and farro in this soup! Pancetta- There are 8 oz. of pancetta in this soup and it is one of the first ingredients we partially cook in the pot to create a delicious fond as the base of the soup. Pancetta is a cured pork meat that you can buy in large chunks or already cut up into cubes (that is what we did). If you can’t find pancetta, a great substitution for pancetta is bacon! Ground Turkey- Ground turkey is another delicious ingredient that makes this soup hearty and healthy! We used turkey rather than another ground meat because it’s a leaner protein and the pancetta has the perfect amount of fat and salt to flavor the turkey perfectly! Here’s a tip–> Be sure not to cook the turkey fully when cooking it down in step 2, it will fully cook when you simmer the soup later in the recipe. Red wine- We used red wine to deglaze the pot! Don’t skip this step! The red wine adds the perfect amount of acidity that you need to balance out the saltiness of the pancetta! Kale- Since kale is the hero of this recipe, you can’t skip it! Make sure to add the kale last (just so it wilts). If you add the kale too soon, it will turn mushy and nobody likes mushy kale. 🙂 Crimini mushrooms- The mushrooms in this kale soup add a ton of nutritional value and they compliment the wine, pancetta, and everything in between! Farro- Soup recipes with grains are one some of my favorites! The beautiful part of the farro in this recipe is that you can throw it in the broth and let it soak up all the delicious flavors! Farro sometimes gets a bad wrap because it takes a while to make, but it has the perfect amount of bite after you simmer it for 30 minutes in this soup! Beef broth + Mushroom broth- Why two types of broth? Beef broth is delicious, but can sometimes be a bit rich. We went half and half with mushroom broth to add amazing flavor and lighten up the broth just enough!

Cooking (and salting) in Layers

When you read through the recipe card you will notice that there is a lot of adding things to the pot and then removing them to cook something else separately. All to just put everything back into the pot at the end. What madness! There is a method to this madness. You want to cook the all of the ingredients in layers to create a base for your broth. You also want to be sure you are not over cooking ingredients when you simmer the soup for the 30 minutes it has to simmer. Do yourself a favor and don’t skip the layering!

Why deglaze with wine?

Do you have to deglaze with wine, no. Do we recommend it, yes! Deglazing the pot after cooking down all of the ingredients does two things.

Other Vegetable Options

We use kale, mushrooms, onion, and garlic in this soup. Four simple vegetables that add amazing texture and flavor. However, if you’d like to add more veggies to this soup, here are some of our recommendations! All vegetables below should be cut into about 1/2 inch cubes (or chunks) and added to the pot when adding the farro so they have enough time to cook.

Potatoes (white or sweet) Carrots Parsnips