Chickpea Soup - Vegan

Chickpea Soup is one of the heartiest meals for the Autumn/Winter season. This soup is full of flavours and as soon as you start eating it your entire body warms up. Not only is it delicious, it’s also very healthy and full of proteins.

We usually make our Chickpea Soup with dry chickpeas, which means that you have to soak them for at least 12 hours before starting to make this soup. This can be disheartening when you start reading through the recipe so make sure you do this the night before or use pre-cooked / canned chickpeas.

This is the recipe for the Italian style chickpea soup but chickpeas are abundant throughout the Mediterranean and in the Middle East and every country has a different soup.

One of our favourite varieties in the Kurdish Chickpea Soup called “Nok” which literally means Chickpeas made with almost the same ingredients as the Italian one but without the celery, carrots, leak and tomato purée and instead adding 1 Tbs of turmeric and more white onions.

Prep Time: 10 Minutes (12 hours of soaking for the chickpeas)

Cooking Time: 120 Minutes

Ingredients (for 4):

• Dried chickpeas - 300g

• Carrots - 1

• Celery - 1 stalk

• White Onions - 1

• Leek - 1

• Extra virgin olive oil - 3 Tbs

• Rosemary - 2 sprigs

• Salt & Pepper to taste

• Bay leaf - 2 leaves

• Vegetable broth 1,5 l

• Tomato puree 60g

Preparation:

1. To prepare the chickpea soup you will have to start by soaking the chickpeas. Pour them into a large bowl, cover them with water and leave them for at least 12 hours (If you don’t have time to do this step you can use pre-cooked chickpeas or canned chickpeas but the result won’t be exactly the same).

2. After at least 12 hours have passed, start heating the vegetable broth on the stove at medium-high heat.

3. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, make sure you rinse them well. Clean the leek and cut it vertically removing the first two leaves and then cutting it into pieces.

4. Wash the celery and chop it finely, also chop the onion and carrot.

5. Pour the olive il into a pan, let it heat up and then add the chopped celery, carrot, onion and the leek. Cook the vegetables for around 2 minutes and then add some of the hot broth and continue cooking to about 10 minutes.

6. Now you can add the chickpeas, letting them cook for around 5 minutes. After this add the bay leaf and rosemary (tie them together with a kitchen string). Cover the chickpeas with the hot vegetable broth and add the tomato sauce.

7. Stir and cover the chickpeas with a lid. Leave to cook over low heat for about 2 or 2 and a half hours, adding broth as needed.

8. At the end of cooking, remove the rosemary and bay leaf and season with salt and pepper before serving.

9. Your chickpea soup is ready, accompanied with croutons, if you prefer, and enjoy your meal.