Freekeh absorbs roughly twice as much liquid as rice during cooking. Without accounting for this, you end up with either a porridge or a soup where the grain stays hard in the centre. With the right ratio in this recipe, we solve that problem straight away and produce a rustic, nutty, nicely thickened freekeh soup.
We have been making freekeh soup in the cold season for years, whenever we want something filling but have no appetite for meat. Freekeh is simply unripe spelt that has been harvested early and dried over beechwood fires. That roasting is what sets this soup apart from an ordinary vegetable broth: lightly smoky, nutty, almost like a gentle roasting stock, without a single piece of meat in the mixing bowl.
Freekeh Soup with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 9 ✓
- 40 g freekeh (whole grain)
- 150 g carrot
- 50 g celeriac
- 1 spring onion
- 25 g olive oil
- 1000 g vegetable stock
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1/4 bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 1/4 bunch lovage
Instructions 0 / 7
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1
Crack the freekeh.
Add the freekeh to the mixing bowl and crack for 10 seconds / speed 8, then set aside.
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2
Chop the vegetables.
Peel the carrot and celeriac, cut into pieces, place in the mixing bowl and chop for 3 seconds / speed 5.
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3
Sweat the vegetables.
Wash and trim the spring onion, cut into fine rings and add to the mixing bowl. Add the olive oil and cook for 5 minutes / 120°C (TM31: Varoma) / reverse direction / speed 1.
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4
Cook the soup.
Add the cracked freekeh and vegetable stock and cook for 15 min / 90°C / reverse direction / speed 1.
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5
Prepare the herbs.
Meanwhile, wash and pat dry the thyme, then pick the leaves. Wash and pat dry the parsley and lovage, then chop finely.
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6
Finish cooking the soup.
Add the thyme leaves to the mixing bowl and continue cooking for 5 minutes / 90°C / reverse direction / speed 1.
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7
Serve.
Add the parsley and lovage to the mixing bowl and stir together for 30 seconds / reverse direction / speed 3.
Nutrition per serving
Why freekeh needs twice as much stock as rice
This is the most important number in the recipe. Rice absorbs roughly twice its own weight in water during cooking. Freekeh, especially cracked, absorbs four times its weight and more. In our recipe we therefore use only 40 g of freekeh with 1000 g of vegetable stock. That sounds like a lot of liquid for so little grain, but this ratio is exactly what gives the soup its characteristic, slightly thickened yet still spoonable consistency. If you increase the freekeh to 80 g, you end up with something closer to a grain dish with carrots than a soup.
The second factor is cracking. Whole freekeh grains need around 45 minutes of soaking time. When we crack the grain first in the mixing bowl for 10 seconds at speed 8, we are ready in 15 to 20 minutes. Cracking breaks open the hard outer layer, water penetrates the grain immediately and the starch is partially released into the stock. It is exactly this released starch that thickens the soup naturally, without flour, cream or potatoes.
Which freekeh to use in the mixing bowl
In health food shops or organic stores you usually find three options: whole grain, cracked freekeh and freekeh flour. For this soup we use only the whole grain and crack it ourselves. Ready-cracked freekeh from a packet is often already too fine and turns mushy after 15 minutes in the stock. Freekeh flour is out of the question entirely, as it gives no texture at all.
When buying, give the packet a sniff if you can. Freshly roasted freekeh smells distinctly of campfire and toasted nuts. If it smells musty or neutral, it has been on the shelf too long, and the characteristic flavour will be missing from the finished soup.
The three root vegetables we never leave out
Carrot, celeriac and spring onion form the base. The ratio in the recipe is 150 g carrot to 50 g celeriac to 1 spring onion, and this is intentional. Celeriac has a noticeably stronger flavour than carrot, and once you go above one third celeriac, the soup tips into bitterness. The carrot provides a natural sweetness that balances the roasted character of the freekeh. Using spring onion instead of a standard onion is a deliberate choice: it is milder and fresher, and we stir the green part in at the end, which adds another layer of colour and flavour.
Celeriac here means the root, not celery sticks. Peel it generously. The outer layer is fibrous and unpleasant in the mouth, because the Thermomix® at 3 seconds at speed 5 only chops coarsely rather than blending. This is intentional: the soup is meant to have pieces.
Why 90°C instead of 100°C during cooking
The instruction step calls for 15 minutes at 90°C in reverse direction at speed 1. This is not a misprint. At 100°C the soup would begin to simmer and the cracked freekeh would move too aggressively against the bowl wall, causing the grain to break apart and lose its bite. At 90°C the soup cooks gently, like a slow-cooked Risotto. Reverse direction moves the grain in the right direction against the blade without cutting it. Anyone who has cooked a grain soup in normal direction will know what happens: after 15 minutes you have grain fragments floating in porridge.
On the TM31, the machine cannot reach 120°C when sweating the spring onion in olive oil. Select the Varoma setting instead, which works just as well and takes only about a minute longer for the vegetables to soften. On the TM5 and TM6, go straight to 120°C.
The herbs that make the difference between stew and soup
Three herbs appear in the recipe, and all three matter. Thyme goes in earlier and cooks for 5 minutes, because its essential oils need heat to release into the stock. Parsley and lovage go in only at the end for 30 seconds at speed 3 in reverse direction, because they do not tolerate heat well and would otherwise turn grey and bitter.
Lovage is the secret ingredient. Many home cooks do not know the herb and simply replace it with more parsley. This does not work. Lovage tastes so intensely of Maggi seasoning that even a quarter of a bunch completely changes the character of the soup. If you cannot find it fresh, frozen lovage from a bag works well too, dried does not. In a pinch, a teaspoon of lovage paste will do, but then go easy on the salt, as the paste already brings its own seasoning.
If the soup turns out too thick or too thin
When serving, we sometimes find the consistency is not quite right. The soup becomes too thick if the freekeh is cracked for longer than 10 seconds at speed 8. The grain is then almost flour, releases too much starch and the soup becomes porridge-like. The fix: simply add 100 to 200 g of hot stock and stir briefly at speed 1.
Too thin happens if you accidentally cracked for only 5 seconds and the grain is still almost whole. In that case the starch binding is missing. The fix: cook for a further 5 minutes at 90°C in reverse direction at speed 1, which releases more starch. Stirring in cream is also an option, but that shifts the character from a rustic grain soup to a cream soup, which is a different thing altogether.
How we serve and store the soup
Straight from the mixing bowl, we like to serve the freekeh soup with a dollop of soured cream and a slice of toasted rye bread. If you like, drizzle a little good-quality pumpkin seed oil over the top: it pairs perfectly with the roasted flavour of the freekeh. A few toasted sunflower seeds as a topping also give a pleasant crunch without overpowering the base flavour.
In the fridge the soup keeps for three days in a sealed jar. Take care when reheating: the freekeh continues to absorb liquid overnight, so by the second day the soup is noticeably thicker than on the first. Simply add 100 to 200 g of stock or water and warm through gently, then the consistency is back on track. Freezing works too, though the grain becomes a little softer after thawing and loses a touch of bite. We therefore prefer to freeze the soup in individual portions rather than one large container, which thaws faster and more gently.
More soups from our collection
If you enjoyed the freekeh soup, you might also like our potato soup with a similarly rustic character, our hearty goulash soup for hungrier days, and our pea soup with mint as a fresh, green contrast. We have gathered over 40 more soup recipes in our collection, every one of them suitable for TM31, TM5 and TM6.
How other recipes approach this differently
Goes well with: Wholemeal bread.
Most Thermomix® freekeh soup recipes take a different approach to ours. They use 100 to 120 g of whole, uncracked grain in 800 to 900 g of water and cook for 30 minutes at 100°C, often with sweet potato, leek or potato as a filling base. The soup is made creamy with 100 to 200 g of cream or an egg and cream mixture, and the seasoning comes mostly from nutmeg and paprika. In our version, the starch released from the freekeh in the Thermomix® provides the thickening instead of cream, and lovage combined with thyme delivers the depth. This saves calories, keeps the roasted flavour in the foreground and requires only around 20 minutes of cooking time instead of 50.
