Chicken Chorizo Kale Bean Farro Soup is a hearty soup, perfect for cooler temperatures in the fall and winter. Soup is my comfort food, especially when it’s a chunky soup like this one.
Today, I’m teaching a soup class at our local senior center where we’ll be making this Hearty Chicken Chorizo Kale Bean Farro Soup. It’s definitely on the heartier side, and a great one dish meal for the wintertime. The purpose of the cooking class is to encourage seniors to make healthy meals at home. Often, whether you’re living alone, or are empty nesters, it can be hard to get motivated to cook. However, it’s so much less expensive than buying prepared foods, and you can control exactly what goes into the recipe to suit your tastes.
Inspired by a White Bean Soup with Kale and Chorizo I spotted on Cooking Light, this soup has a Spanish twist using chicken chorizo (I found this at Whole Foods) and smoked paprika. I embellished this soup to make it a one-bowl meal with a lot more vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, and zucchini in addition to the powerhouse kale), and whole grain fiber (farro). Farro is a whole grain that is sometimes hard to find. I bought some quick-cooking farro from Trader Joe’s to test it out, but you can also find it at Italian delis and at Whole Foods. For a gluten-free version, simply substitute brown rice or quinoa for farro. You could easily turn this into an Italian soup with Italian chicken or turkey sausage, oregano and thyme.
Hearty Chicken Chorizo, Kale, Bean and Farro Soup
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 4-ounce links fresh chicken Chorizo sausage (removed from casing)
- 1 carrot peeled, thinly sliced
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups or 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 1/2 cup or 1 16 ounce can beans, rinsed and drained (use your favorite)
- 4 cups chopped kale you can use frozen
Optional:
- 1 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika
- 4 ounces mushrooms chopped
- 1/2 cup quick cooking farro or regular farro - you will have to cook it longer
- 1 zucchini quartered and cut into 1/4 inch slices
Instructions
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Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add sausage and saute a few minutes, breaking up the pieces. Add carrots, (mushrooms), onions and garlic. Saute until sausage is cooked through, about 4-5 minutes.
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Add chicken broth, tomatoes, beans, (smoked paprika and farro). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cook 15 minutes or until farro is tender (if you use regular farro, it may take 25 minutes).
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Add kale and (zucchini) and continue cooking another 6-7 minutes until kale is just tender.
If you like this Chicken Chorizo Kale Bean Farro Soup, you might also like:
Hearty Fall Harvest Vegetable Soup
I love that you are taking time out to spend with your local seniors and I know how much they appreciate that sort of interaction and learning experience. I could climb mountains and swim seas on this soup Jeanette – amazing!
Hi Kelly, it was a fun class and everyone enjoyed this soup. I served a nice beet, corn, tomato salad alongside and packed a container of soup for them to take home for dinner. It’s a fun way for me to give back to our community.
Love your soup, and the spirit behind it. Kale is inspired in here!
–Your friendly Southern California farmers at Cut ‘N Clean Greens
https://www.facebook.com/Cut.n.Clean.Greens
I love a hearty, healthy soup and day!
I love that you’re teaching a cooking class–that is so cool! Farro is such a great addition to soup. It’s so chewy and earthy!
I love one bowl wonders for dinner. This is just gorgeous and I happen to have some farro that has been begging me to find something delicious to us it in. Have a wonderful class today. It sounds like it will be a fun day.
Gorgeous!! Would love this for dinner tonight!! 🙂
Thanks Amanda – the smoked paprika and chorizo are the key ingredients in this hearty soup. My kids loved it as did my soup class.
Thanks everyone – this soup is really good – my soup class loved it and my kids ate the rest for snack yesterday.
You’ve got some of my most favorite ingredients together in this soup!
Julia – this is a really good soup – packed with flavor and veggies. I gave it to my kids as a snack after school the other day. Hope you have a chance to try it.
Love that you include so much vegetables in the soup, so healthy. Beautiful color too. Did not know there is quick cooking farro, must remember when next I visit Trader’s Joe.
Thanks Norma – I’m always trying to squeeze in as many vegetables as possible – great way to get my kids to eat more veggies. I actually added more vegetables + farro as a way to make this soup extra nutritious for the seniors that I taught the soup class to. I wanted to make it easy for them to have a one bowl meal that was healthy and tasty. Quick cooking farro takes about 15 minutes vs. 25-30 minutes for regular farro, so it saves a little bit of time.
Hi Jeannette – just had this for dinner tonight. It was delicious and very easy to make. My family loved it. Thank you for your easy, healthy and delicious recipes – they make my life easier and my family healthier and happier.,
Elaine
Hi Elaine,
So glad you made this and enjoyed it. My soup class loved it as did my kids. I even gave it to them as a snack one afternoon. Thanks for letting me know how it turned out – I always appreciate hearing from readers who try the recipes on my blog.
Love your site but this recipe shouldn’t be tagged gluten-free
Thanks for your comment Mai – this recipe is gluten-free adaptable. I’ve made some changes to the text to clarify how to adapt it for those on a gluten-free diet. I use brown rice in place of farro for a gluten-free version.