Once again I turn to my faithful soups. I know it’s still summer (just about!), but as I grew up all meals started with a soup and I want my kids to have the same healthy habit. The truth is I never tire of making soups and made this one this week because I had a chickpea craving. I love chickpeas! (I know I’ve said this before…). And they are healthy too, which is a huge bonus.
Here they make up the ‘body’ of the soup together with the sweet potato. I could have blitzed them all to mix with the sweet potato base but having some float around in the soup for an occasional soft bite makes a difference, which also reminds us this is a chickpea soup. So make sure you save some before using the blender.
This soup is very easy to make and the sweetness of the sweet potatoes together with the earthy smooth chickpeas make for a delicious combination, well worthy of a post.
Just a few things to keep in mind – make sure you buy chickpeas that are very soft, i.e. properly cooked. There is nothing worse than crunchy chickpeas and a grainy soup base (that’s what happens if you blitz crunchy chickpeas). There are several brands of tinned chickpeas out there and they vary hugely in terms of how hard the cooked chickpeas are. So make sure you bite into one before adding to the soup. If it’s not really soft, i.e. just about holding its shape, then it needs boiling on its own before making into the soup recipe. You can also, of course, buy them dry and boil yourself, but this does take a very long time and they also need soaking. Nothing wrong with being practical!
One other thing: when you drain your chickpeas just add a little fine salt to them. I found that if I didn’t do that, the chickpeas that did not get blitzed into the soup lacked seasoning and you end up biting into a soft little sphere lacking in flavour, which sort of spoils the experience. Otherwise this should be really easy and a perfect end of summer, beginning of autumn treat.
- 1 tin (400gr) chickpeas
- 1 pinch fine salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 20 grams salted butter
- 1 leek
- 1 brown onion
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 500 ml chicken stock
- 400 ml boiling water
- parsley for garnish
- Drain the chickpeas after rinsing them with water. Add some fine salt and reserve. In a large pan place the olive oil and butter on a medium heat and let the butter melt. Roughly chop the leek, sweet potato, onion and garlic and add to the pan. Cook them for 15 minutes until they start to soften.
- Add 3/4 of the chickpeas and deglaze the pan with 500 ml chicken stock.
- Add another 400ml boiling water and let it cook for 30 minutes on a gentle simmer with the lid partially on.
- When the cooking time ends, blitz the whole thing and then add the extra chickpeas. You may need to add a bit more water if you find the consistency too thick. This often happens if you boil your soup without the lid on. But you should have it with whichever consistency you prefer, so add water accordingly. Make sure you adjust the seasoning as the water will dilute the flavour somewhat. Add some chopped parsley for flavour and colour.
Like soups? Check out my super creamy courgette soup, my carrot soup with cheesy croutons and my roasted chicken broth with orzo.
4 Comments
Thank you for your kind words and the inspiration to write something freely. Your blog is lovely and your sons must be loving these recipes (proper comfort food is really Mum’s home cooking!) I look forward to reading more, recipes or not. Thank you.
Thank you, Andrea, for making me feel like this blog thing is actually worth it 🙂
please ship a bowl to me, posthaste 😉
Hi Hungry Mum, thanks for dropping by 🙂 This really is so easy to make, have a go and let me know!