Lemon Chicken and Farro Soup

This bright, lemon chicken and farro soup makes for an ideal light dinner – even in the summer!

I know soup in the summer sounds strange. In fact my car said it was a 100 degrees on my way home the night I made this. But when you’re in the mood for soup, you just have to crank up the air conditioning and give your taste buds what they ask for 😉

Lemon is my all-time favorite flavor, yet I never thought to put it in soup until now. It brings such a brightness to what I think of as a traditionally cloudy, cold-weather day kind of food. You’ll also notice that this calls for both chicken and vegetable broth. It may sound strange but trust me, the vegetable broth adds such a great herbal flavor that makes this broth much more interesting than just traditional chicken soup.

For the chicken, I baked mine the night before, making this a super quick recipe when I came home from work the next day. Feel free to use a rotisserie chicken instead or cook the chicken in the pot before adding the broth and lemon juice.

Short post today as I’m traveling for work!

Here’s a toast to a summer-appropriate soup that isn’t chowder!

Print Recipe

Lemon Chicken and Farro Soup

This bright, lemon chicken and farro soup makes for an ideal light dinner – even in the summer!

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time25 mins

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Chicken/Turkey, Healthy Soup

Servings: 4

Calories: 290kcal

Author: Kelli

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces or shredded*
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 carrots peeled and sliced
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• Zest from ½ a lemon
• 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 3 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• Juice from 1 lemon
• ½ cup uncooked farro
• Salt to taste
• 1-2 cups shredded kale

Instructions

• Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in large soup pot over medium-high heat. Once hot, add garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds. Next, add sliced carrots, black pepper, dried thyme, and lemon zest.
• After about 1 minute, add broths and lemon juice. Bring to a boil.
• Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and add cooked chicken. Allow to simmer about 5 minutes, or until carrots are beginning to soften.
• Next, add in farro** and simmer 10-12 minutes, or until farro is soft but still chewy. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
• Just before serving, add kale. Cook 1-2 minutes or until wilted. Serve immediately.

Notes

*For the chicken, I drizzled the uncooked breasts with olive oil and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes, or until cooked through. **If planning on saving any leftovers, I recommend cooking the farro separately from the rest of the soup and storing the leftover farro in its own container. The reason being is that the farro will continue to soak up the broth, so you’ll be left with just farro, chicken, and veggies the next day but no broth.

Nutrition for 1/4 of recipe: 290 calories, 6 g saturated fat, 28 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 29 g protein

Recipe loosely adapted from Delish.com