Food on Fridays: Taste-Testing Chickpea Soup

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Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to list your three favorite cookbooks, that’ll do just fine.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

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Food on Fridays Participants

Food on Fridays with AnnI had almost everything on hand to make Curried Chickpea Soup, a recipe that Breastfeeding Moms Unite included in last week’s carnival.So I tried making it, with modifications. I’ve annotated the recipe below.The biggest change was that I had to make a much smaller amount, but was too lazy to do any math. I also kept skipping over ingredients and then going back and adding things later. It got better and better. By the time I was done, this soup tasted so different from anything I’ve ever eaten and was so delicious, I wanted to cry. I ate three servings right away. Couldn’t stop myself.Curried Chick Pea Soup

• 8 cups vegetable broth (I used one can)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (probably less, but I rarely measure olive oil)
• 1 yellow onion, finely diced (I used a tiny bit of onion—too much and I have digestive issues)
• 2 tsp salt (much less)
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 garlic cloves (Whoa! That’s a lot of garlic. I used one clove in the mincer)
• 3 Tbsp minced ginger (Forgot the ginger—added a little bit upon reheating, but it was delicious without)
• 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded (Didn’t have these and can’t stand the heat; used part of a green bell pepper)
• 1 red pepper (I had part of one)
• 6 ripe tomatoes (I had one big one)
• 1 tsp cumin seed (I had some ground cumin)
• 1 tsp coriander seed (Didn’t have this)
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garam masala (I didn’t have this, either)
• 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1/8 tsp turmeric (I happened to have some of this)
• 3 cups canned/cooked chickpeas (I only used one can, which is why I had to monkey with the amounts of everything else)
• 1/4 cup prepared mango chutney (just a bit of Major Grey Chutney and once blended added sooo much to the flavor, wow)
• 1/2 can coconut milk (used almost this much, even though I made such a small amount of soup overall—gooooooood)
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, minced (Obviously just a sprig for the smaller amoung, but yum!)

Directions:Heat the oil in a soup pot and add onion, 1 tsp salt and bay leaves. Sauté until onions are soft and golden. Meanwhile., places the garlic, ginger, peppers, and tomatoes in a food processor and pulse until the vegetables form a rough purée. Set aside. Note: What makes this soup so good is the purée!Next, grind the cumin and coriander seeds. Add these and all remaining spices to the sautéed onions and continue cooking and stirring for 5 minutes. Add the vegetable purée and another tsp of salt and simmer until blobs of oil pool on the surface. Add the chick peas and vegetable broth and bring to a simmer. Cook several minutes, then add the chutney and coconut milk. Using a potato masher, gently mash the chick peas against the bottom of the pot to break them up slightly and thicken the soup. If this is something you don’t care about, don’t do it, as mashing the chick peas will cause their skins to come off, which many folks, including me and my kids don’t care for on their own. Simmer and season to taste with salt and cracked pepper. Add chopped cilantro just before serving.Serve with warm whole wheat chapati or pita bread and a salad.(Or just eat three bowls in a row without worrying about sides, because this is now what you crave more than chocolate.)

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