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Slow Cooker Farro and Cannellini Bean Soup with Vegetables and Parmesan

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Many slow cooker recipes are bait-and-switch (and some, like this Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili are somewhere in between). The dream is to fill a slow cooker with ingredients, turn it on, and hours later have a delicious meal. But so often you have to brown this and sauté that before you begin. Not so with this recipe.

The idea for this soup came from an incredible meal we had at Trattoria Sbandati here in Bend. We were there with a group and I can’t remember who ordered it. But I do know that we all ended up digging our spoons in for a bite. So. Delicious. 

I came home determined to recreate it, a perfect companion to our other favorite Italian soups, Ribollita and Pasta e Fagioli. But I never imagined how easy it would be.

If you can’t find a smoked ham hock, then dice and fry a couple of bacon slices instead. (See, what did I tell you, bait-and-switch.) Or skip the meat altogether and throw in a couple of parmesan rinds from your freezer. You have those, right? Never throw a rind away – they’re great for enriching soups. If you don’t go through enough parmesan to save your own, often you can buy them inexpensively from your local cheesemonger.

If you’re having weather like we are, this is just the thing to make for dinner this week.

Keith-Shoveling-Our-Driveway

5 from 2 votes
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Slow Cooker Farro and Cannellini Bean Soup with Vegetables and Parmesan

If you want to make this soup vegetarian, use vegetable broth and parmesan rinds instead of pork and chicken broth.
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 hours 20 minutes
Total Time 5 hours 30 minutes
Servings 12 people

Ingredients

  • 1 pound dry cannellini beans salt soaked overnight (see recipe notes)
  • 1 cup dry farro emmer or spelt berries
  • 1 smoked ham hock (or 3 bacon slices diced and fried until crisp)
  • 1 onion diced
  • 6 cloves garlic smashed and peeled
  • 3 carrots coarsely chopped
  • 3 ribs celery coarsely chopped
  • 10 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 1/2 head cabbage coarsely chopped

To finish:

  • grated Parmigiano Reggiano or other good parmesan cheese
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • chopped flat leaf parsley

Instructions

  1. Add soaked beans through cabbage, in order, to the bowl of a large slow cooker. Carefully stir, just to make sure the broth makes it to the bottom.
  2. Cover and cook on high 6 hours, or until beans are tender. (Start checking bean tenderness after 5 hours.)
  3. Lift ham hock from the soup and use a fork to remove and shred the meat - add the meat back to the soup and stir. Discard bone.
  4. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  5. Serve soup topped with grated Parmigiano Reggiano, a generous swirl of olive oil, and a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

Recipe Notes

See this post for instructions to salt soak beans.

Made this recipe?

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Comments

  2. I know this post is old, however I wanted to comment. I was just at Trattoria Sbandati
    last weekend and had their farrow soup, and I enjoyed it very much. Searching online
    I found your recipe and story along with it. I tried the recipe today, and even though it’s
    the middle of summer, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

    • That’s so great, Ben! Even though it’s the middle of summer, I’ve been craving this soup for the last week! It may be hot going down, but at least you don’t have to turn on the stovetop or the oven right? 🙂

      Reply

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