You’ll love this hearty, healthy and filling wild mushroom and farro soup recipe that eats like a meal!
Wild Mushroom and Farro Soup
There’s something so cozy about eating soup during the colder months. This lightened up version of Ina Garten’s wild mushroom and farro soup recipe will blow you away. It tastes luxurious and fancy while also feeling comforting and warming. Every time I make this wild mushroom soup for family and friends, they go crazy for it! It is honestly the best mushroom I’ve ever found. If you love mushroom soup, you should also try Chicken Shiitake Wild Rice Soup and Three Cheese Tortellini Mushroom Soup.
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Mushroom Soup Ingredients
Smoky bacon, woodsy mushrooms, hearty farro, onions, carrots, celery, beef broth and marsala wine simmer together to create a rich and layered soup that definitely eats likes a meal.
What To Serve with Mushroom Soup
I serve this earthy and filling soup with fresh bakery bread and Gina’s house salad made with love. It’s also perfect (maybe even better!) reheated for lunch the next day.
Is mushroom soup good for health?
This wild mushroom and farro soup is definitely good for health! It’s loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants from the cremini and porcini mushrooms, and from the onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Farro is also a super healthy food (see why is farro a superfood below), and the beef broth and Canadian bacon are loaded with protein and other nutrients.
Why is farro a superfood?
This ancient grain is packed full of nutrient goodness! It’s an excellent source of protein, fiber and nutrients like magnesium, zinc and some B vitamins.
Perfect for Meal Prep!
If you want to meal prep this soup, you can make it ahead and refrigerate in air tight containers. This soup will last up to 4 days in the refrigerator or you can freeze up to 3 months.
More Soup Recipes You Will Love
- Chicken Shiitake Wild Rice Soup
- Three Cheese Tortellini Mushroom Soup
- Chicken Barley Soup
- Minestrone
- Turkey Meatball Vegetable Soup
Wild Mushroom and Farro Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 ounces Canadian bacon or pancetta, diced
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 4 medium carrots, chopped
- 4 medium celery stalks, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 3/4 cup uncooked pearled farro
- 1 pound sliced cremini mushrooms
- 1/2 cup Marsala wine, plus (optional) more to taste
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter, slightly softened
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Place the dried porcini in a small pot and cover with four cups of water: bring to a boil. Shut off heat, cover pot, and allow porcini to soak for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven.
- Add the Canadian bacon or pancetta, onions, carrots, and celery and sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender.
- Add the garlic and farro and sauté for 2 minutes, then add cremini mushrooms and Marsala and continue cooking for 5 minutes more.
- Strain the porcini soaking liquid directly into the soup pot. Add the broth and the thyme.
- Rinse the porcini under cold water, then coarsely chop them and add to the soup.
- Add the salt and 1 teaspoon pepper, bring soup to a boil then partially cover and lower the heat to gentle simmer for 45 minutes.
- Just before serving, mash butter and flour together and add to the soup. Swirl until combined.
- Add another tablespoon or two of Marsala wine and more salt to taste, if desired. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
I love the idea of farro in a soup, but am not a fan of mushrooms. With what can I replace the mushrooms (meat or vegetable)?
Maybe my favorite soup recipe ever! Only minor variations to the recipe – I only had 1/2 oz dried porcini, used baby Bellas instead of cremini. I love mushrooms and farro so, really, what could be bad about this? The marsala and thyme added wonderful flavor. Thanks for a great recipe.
Gina! Oh WOW! This soup is absolutely amazing! I made it just as written except for using beef STOCK, which is just a preference of mine to use stock vs broth. I will be making this again, and again, and…well I think you understand! Thank you!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I messed up and only used half the recommended amount of mushrooms but the soup still turned out flavorful and delicious! As usual, another SkinnyTaste winner!!
This was so savory and delicious! I skipped the porcini for portobello and cremini for white. I also didn’t have thyme on hand so I used a heavy hand of poultry seasoning. Highly recommend serving with fresh bread and a glass of red.
This was delicious and easy to make. I subbed baby Bella mushrooms and spiral ham because that’s what I had on hand. My husband had two helpings.
Just wondering about the flour butter mash at the end? Isn’t it advisable to cook flour…and besides that, won’t it have a raw taste similar without being toasted for a minute or so?
I would add the flour at the beginning when sautéing the onions and carrots. Unless you are creating a slurry of flour and liquid, mixing it together and then adding it to the soup. I usually omit butter if it’s not really necessary.
Loved it and will make it again. I subbed some rose wine for the marsala. May try marsala next time.
This soup is incredible! I kept to the recipe after finding dried porcine mushrooms at the store. I used Canadian bacon and out the extra 2 tablespoons of marsala wine in at the end. I was a little intimidated by the recipe when I read it, but it comes to together easily.
I love making soup for dinner!
This was easy to make…Farro I couldn’t find the grain….but I did use the Alexei Farro with porcini mushroom, worked well.
I added 2-3 cups of fresh spinach, and since we like masala wine, I added a total of 3/4 c.
Definitely we will make it again
This was really tasty and so nice and cozy on a winter day! I made a few substitutions based on what I had available. I can’t eat onions and garlic so I subbed in fennel bulb for the onion and left out the garlic. We didn’t have dried mushrooms but I found a mushroom broth to use instead of beef and we used some red wine instead of marsala. I also added in a tsp of miso to help add some depth of flavour that might be missing without the garlic & onion. So much flavour overall and I love the texture of the farro in the soup!
Can bacon be used as a substitute for pancetta?
Very earthy and a bit bland for me. Should have added fresh herbs. I like layers of flavors and this was a one note of flavors. I really wanted to like this as it seemed like a great snow day comfort soup.
It was fabulous, made by my neighbor. I’m hooked! Must make it myself soon!
Made this as written tonight and it was absolutely wonderful. Thanks so much for such tasty and healthy recipes.
I loved this! Made it last night and I’m enjoying it again today. Couple substitutions I did – I had no Marsala wine, so used what I had on hand, Harvey’s Bristol Cream. Soooo good! Oh, also had no farro so used barley instead. Will be making this again. Thank you for yet another great recipe!
Just WOW! This soup is so delicious. The porcini cooking liquid adds so much umami to the dish. I added dried chives, dried rosemary and a bunch of fresh spinach as the only changes. Definitely a keeper recipe.
So happy you liked it!
If I don’t have dried porcini and substitute fresh instead, do I still need to add the 4 cups of “strained” water? Thanks!
You only soak the dried porcini mushrooms, so if you don’t use the porcini mushrooms, I would for sure include 4 cups of water or broth to the soup.
Delicious soup! I added some boneless chicken thigh meat and used baby Bella mushrooms instead of crimini cuz that’s what I could find.
Great!
Loved this recipe and will definitely make again! Perfect dinner on cold winter
night. Followed with a salad!
Thank you!
Linda
I tweaked the heck out of this recipe, and it turned out really well. I couldn’t find plain farro, what I used had mushroom seasoning in it….so I used the original recipe as a jumping off point…Lots of diced “meaty” mushrooms, added finely diced pork chops (3) and diced Taylor Pork Roll,[I really went crazy] and since it wasnt the usual “creamy” texture, I had fun with it. Recipes like this are my favorite, as they allow me to be creative in the kitchen. Thank you. It was a big hit, and leftovers for lunch!!!
Any substitution for the farro that would make it gluten free?
You could try quinoa, though you’ll have to adjust the cooking time.
This looks amazing! Where do you get your dried porcini mushrooms?
Love the recipe! I use pre-chopped mirepoix from the freezer section to make this easier and quicker versus chopping my own each time. It’s less costly too!
For the marsala wine, did you use sweet or dry variety? Thanks!
Hello! My bottle just says Marsala cooking wine…it does not specify, but I think dry typically works best is most dishes. I did a quick search and found this: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/how_tos/8889-are-sweet-and-dry-marsala-interchangeable
My bottle actually does not say, but I think dry works best in most recipes!
this looks so good! Do you think it would be OK to leave out the pancetta?
Try it!
I will – Thank you! Thank you for your wonderful recipes .. I enjoy them all
I’m wondering about that too. I’m sure it adds a lot of flavor but prefer to omit it. Any substitutes that aren’t porky or beefy?
The mushrooms have a ton of flavor, so it might taste really good without the pork. Give it a try and let me know!
I was also wanting to make this vegetarian. I think to make up for omitting the pancetta I will add a tablespoon of tomato paste or black garlic paste for extra umami and I will also swap veggie broth (or dashi broth) for the beef broth.
I am trying it with turkey bacon.
Of course this does not answer you question, but I thought someone who’s looking for substitutions might like this: use prosciutto instead of pancetta . It worked great for my taste!
What if I am unable to get porcini mushrooms? Could I put in a variety of fresh?
Yes, that would work!
Thanks! Maybe I’ll double the amount of mushrooms but fresh and a variety.
Hi. Do you think that I could substitute barley for farro? If so, would you cook in advance or add to the soup like the farro? Thanks!
Sure, just see if the cook times are the same.
What can I sub for butter?
olive oil