Farro, Sausage, Kale, & Bean Soup (Instant Pot or Stove Top)

Don’t you love a hearty soup, full of tasty ingredients and actually filling enough that you don’t need a second dinner a couple of hours after the first one? Cook this Farro, Sausage, Kale, & Bean Soup in your pressure cooker or on the stove top and you are set for the night.

Are you looking for other soups to try? Here are some suggestions: Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup, Beer Cheese Soup, or Broccoli Cheddar Potato Soup! We like soup around here.

Ingredients

Sweet Italian Sausage: A base layer of sweet Italian sausage means there’s a ton of flavor right from the start. If you like things spicy, use hot sausage!

Dried Spices and Herbs: We are keeping things simple with garlic powder, dried oregano, and black pepper. Feel free to use fresh oregano (use about twice as much as dried) or minced garlic instead.

Chicken Stock or Broth: Use canned or boxed broth or stock, whichever you have on hand. Most often I reach for concentrated bouillon base.

Quick-cooking (Pearled) Farro: This grain will provide the hearty texture that makes this soup so satisfying. Pearled farro has the husk and bran removed to speed up the cooking time so it's perfect for mid-week dinners. I get mine at Trader Joe's.

Kale: Load up the soup with chopped fresh kale, but remove the thick stems before you add any to the soup.

White Beans: I use either cannelini or great northern beans, but navy beans work well too. Rinse and drain both cans of beans and puree half of the beans with some stock to thicken the soup.

Preparation In the Instant Pot

Cook this soup in a large Dutch oven or soup pot on the stove top or in your Instant Pot pressure cooker. You'll also need an immersion blender, a regular blender, or a food processor to blend up the beans. Gather up your other ingredients and you’ll have this soup ready in a jiffy.

Heat your Instant Pot using the "saute" function and cook the sausage, oregano, garlic, and black pepper until the sausage is browned. Break it up into bite-sized pieces.

While the sausage is cooking purée half of the the beans along with one cup of stock. This will be used to thicken the soup.

Once the sausage is cooked, add the bean puree, the farro, and the rest of the stock or broth. Turn off the saute function, lock on the lid and pressure valve in place, and cook the soup using manual high pressure for 6 minutes.

After the cooking time is up, do a quick release and add the kale and beans to the soup. Stir everything together, let it sit for about five minutes to soften the kale, and your soup is ready for serving!

Preparation on the Stove Top

Start with the soup pot on medium-high heat. Add the sausage and the oregano, garlic, and pepper to the pot and cook until the sausage is browned, breaking up the meat as you stir things around.

Once the sausage is ready, add the pureed beans and the remaining stock and bring things to a boil.

Once the soup is boiling, add the farro and boil for 10 minutes (or according to package directions). You should watch the pot to make sure the soup doesn’t boil over and adjust the head accordingly. Add in the remaining beans and the kale and continue to simmer for 5 minutes.

Serving and Storage

Sausage, Kale, and Farro Soup is definitely a meal in a bowl, but it’s nice to have some buttered bread to go alongside, or a crisp green salad to balance out the rich broth. This recipe will serve 6 generously, but we love it as leftovers.

You can freeze this soup in a freezer bag or container. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and microwave your desired portion or heat the frozen soup slowly over low heat in a saucepan.

Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The farro will continue to absorb the liquid when stored in the fridge, but I just add a bit of water to the bowl when reheating and it works out just fine.

Substitutions

Make it vegetarian by omitting the sausage and using a vegetable stock. This soup is hearty enough with the kale, beans, and farro that it's still a complete meal in a bowl.

Use spinach instead of kale if that's what your family prefers.

Try It and Share

Give this Farro, Sausage, Kale, and Bean Soup a try and let me know what you think of it in the comments. I want to see your results! Tag your photo with #planeatpostrepeat and mention me @planeatpostrepeat on Instagram or Facebook. I can give you a virtual high five and thank you for cooking one of my recipes! Comment below with any questions and please leave a review so others can find this recipe more easily.