Tomato Chickpea Soup

It was a cold wet day today and I thought I would try making a new soup recipe for dinner. The bonus for me was it could be made in the slow cooker which meant I could throw it all together and just walk away. Then if someone catches me reading a book on my window seat I can tell them I’m busy cooking!



Start by dicing up some carrots and celery and put them in the crock pot.

Add the chick peas.  You can use dried beans and soak them overnight but I prefer to use canned beans. You just have to rinse them really well.

Add 4 cups of vegetable broth.

In a separate saucepan, heat some olive oil and add some minced garlic.



Stir in the cumin and paprika and heat for five minutes. Then add some raw sugar (we only have raw sugar in cubes so I tossed a couple in), bay leaves, tahini, salt, tomato paste and water. Stir it up to make a paste.

Pour the mixture over the beans and vegetable mix. Turn the heat to high and cook for two hours.

Turns out two hours isn’t long enough so use the crock pot only if you have all day. I didn’t ‘cuz I had to feed Mr bus driver man before he went to work so I finished cooking the soup in a big pot on the stove.

Once all the veggies were cooked, puree small amounts at a time in your blender until the soup is smooth and creamy. This is actually trickier than it sounds. Or at least a lot messier than I thought it would be.

It’s not a bad idea to start the blender off slowly and give it a little bit of air so some of the heat can escape.  Although the clean-up was enough to give someone a small heart attack, the finished product was actually pretty tasty. Mr bus driver man added some hot sauce to his bowl (of course).

The recipe

Ingredients

1 cup dried garbanzo bean sor 2 16 oz cans, drained and rinsed

6 ripe plum tomatoes (or 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes if you can't find fresh)

2-3 large carrots, sliced in rounds

2 celery stalks, diced

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp spicy paprika

2 large bay leaves

1 Tbsp raw cane sugar

1 Tbsp tahini

1 tsp salt

1 can tomato paste

4 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp dried basil or 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

2 Tbsp Braggs liquid aminos

Directions

Dice tomatoes, carrots and celery. Put in pot and add rinsed and drained beans, 4 cups water and 2 veggie cubes along with bay leaves, basil, salt, tomato paste, tahini and sugar. In a separate pan, heat olive oil on medium heat. Add diced garlic and brown in the oil. Stir in cumin and paprika and heat for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup hot water to the spice mix and stir to make smooth paste. Add to vegetables and beans. If using pot, bring to boil, simmer covered for an hour. If using crock pot, turn heat to high and cook for approximately 3 hours. Blend soup with blender stick or in batches in blender. Add Braggs and salt and pepper to taste.