Continuing on with my “let’s clean out the pantry menu” tonight I made a chickpea soup with tomatoes, basil and spinach.
We didn’t have spinach in the pantry, but we did have chickpeas, tomatoes, and basil. And since winter refuses to give up here in the heartland, soup is still sounding good.
This recipe is from Kalyn’s Kitchen. I don’t know anything about Kalyn or her kitchen. I was just googling for recipes to use chickpeas and came across her site.
Chickpea Soup with Tomatoes, Basil and Spinach a la Kayln
(Plenty for two with leftovers for lunch the next day)
1 cup dried chickpeas
6 cups chicken stock
1 yellow onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, diced very small
2 T olive oil
1 pint whole canned tomatoes (don’t drain them)
1 cube frozen tomato paste
4 cups chopped baby spinach (measured before chopping)
2 cubes frozen basil
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Soak chickpeas overnight in cold water. Drain chickpeas and discard water
Put chickpeas in heavy soup pot with chicken stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chickpeas are tender, at least an hour.
When chickpeas are tender, heat olive oil in a pan and saute onions about 5 minutes until tender, but not browned. Add garlic and cook 2-3 minutes more until nicely fragrant (but not browned either). Add onions and garlic to soup pot with tomatoes and tomato paste cube. Let soup simmer on low heat about 30 minutes.
Add chopped spinach and basil cubes to soup and simmer 15-30 minutes more.
Season soup with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste and serve hot.
Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese if you like.
This is a delightfully tasty and light soup. After last night’s cured pork extravaganza, this soup was a refreshing meal.
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