Reviewing the Recipes - Italian Kale and Farro Soup

We cook a lot of recipes from around the internet and various cookbooks that I don't write about because we don't change the recipe much or at all. I decided to start a series reviewing some of those recipes...

Matt is a loyal Serious Eats reader and often prints out recipes from their Dinner Tonight series. This Italian Kale and Farro Soup is one of those recipes.

These recipes are typically easy and interesting, perfect for a work night. This soup was no exception. Other than some chopping it took no time at all to prepare. It's basically a vegetable soup with farro added to it but, it has some really great flavor thanks to the leek, garlic and fresh thyme. We love the farro, it doesn't get as soft as barley can and adds a nutty flavor (yes, it is quite a bit more expensive than barley). I was worried the kale wouldn't have enough time to cook to tenderness but 20 minutes ended up being just enough time to soften it yet still leave a little texture.

We had only one issue with this recipe and that was with the quantity of some of the ingredients. First, it called for 4 tablespoons of olive oil to sauté the onion and leeks, that is a lot of oil. I cut it in half with no problem. Second, was the amount of farro. The recipe called for 2 cups for 4 servings, that is 1/2 cup per serving, way too much in our book. We cut it down to 1 1/2 cups and we still ended up with a soup that was almost a stew. When Matt had it the next day for lunch there was no broth left, it was more like a farro pilaf or risotto. Next time we'll only use 1 cup of farro which seems more appropriate. Finally the recipe says it makes 4 servings but, with a slice or two of crusty bread we had 6 hearty servings.

This is a soup that gets high marks in our book and will end up in our cold weather rotation.

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