Recipe: Hearty Chickpea & Chard Soup
When it’s cold your body uses so much more energy just trying to stay warm, especially if you work outside like we do. That’s why we love this wonderful soup recipe as not only does it warm you up, but is also full of delicious veg and slow energy release ingredients too.
Ingredients:
- 3 Tins canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
- 3 cups of stock (chicken or otherwise)
- 3 Tablespoons good quality Olive Oil
- 2 Carrots
- 1 Onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 1 tsp dried or fresh chopped rosemary
- Pinch chilli flakes
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup of penette pasta (or macaroni / small piece pasta)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 200 – 300g Rainbow Chard (remove any tough stems and cut remainder into 1 inch pieces
Method:
Chuck half of the chickpeas with 1.5 cups of stock into a blender or food processor and blend it into a puree consistency.
Pop a large pan / pot onto medium-low heat and add the carrot, onion, garlic and rosemary. Cook through stirring often until the vegetables begin to soften, normally around 5 minutes.
Stir in the rest of the stock, the pureed chickpeas, the remainder of the whole chickpeas, bay leaf, chilli flakes, tomatoes and pasta into the pot. Season with some good salt and bring to the boil by raising the heat. When boiling reduce heat and simmer partially covered for 10 minutes.
Add the Rainbow Swiss Chard to the pot and simmer further until the chard is tender and the pasta is done. Normally another 5-10 minutes. Lift the bay leaf out and discard.
Add and stir in some black pepper to taste, and remove from the heat.
Add stock if you want a less thick soup or simply serve.
Photo Credit: Emma Lee
This recipe was inspired by the Food and Wine website.