Warming Up With A Bowl Of Soup

Well, after a few days of warm, balmy wintry weather- followed by rain- winter has returned, and it is ever COLD!  Yesterday was one of those windy days where the wind just went right through the living room- making us desperately wish that we’d covered the windows with plastic this year.  A day like that called for some homemade bread and a pot of soup.

This soup came to my attention because I literally had everything on hand for it at that moment.  I had cooked up a package of dried chickpeas this week, and after freezing a few for another time, I set about looking for different ways to use the second half of the little legumes.   The first night we roasted some chickpeas- and those will get a post all on their own soon, because they were tasty little buggers! I could have snacked on them like popcorn…

Anyway, back to the soup.  What I really liked about this soup was the fact that half of the chickpeas were pureed with stock- so if children just eat the brothy part of the soup (as mine are known to do) they are still getting the fantastic health benefits of the chickpeas.   I did make a few minor changes to the soup.  The first was that I forgot the Swiss chard.  Of all things, I was excited to be able to use some from the freezer and of course, I forgot to add it at all.  I bet it would have been delicious in the soup- but I’ll have to find that out next time.   The other big change to the soup was that I was rummaging through the freezer looking for my rosemary when I found two links of sausage.  I was so excited- because I was certain they were Italian sausage, and a marriage of Italian sausage and chickpeas is a perfect match!  After my vegetables were softened in the first step of the recipe, I added in the Italian sausage- removed from it’s casing and crumbled in.  Once the sausage was pretty much cooked through, then I proceeded with the recipe, adding in the liquid and remaining ingredients.

My final change was with the rosemary.  I found my frozen rosemary and decided that I didn’t want chopped bits of rosemary needles in my soup.  I much prefer to toss in a few sprigs and cook the flavor out before removing the rosemary, so I threw two huge sprigs in the soup and then removed them later on.  The end result was delicious! It turned out my sausage was a little on the spicy side, so the kids didn’t eat too much of it- but Andy really liked it, and it made for fantastic leftovers for lunch today.

Chickpea Soup with Swiss Chard

6 cups drained and rinsed canned chickpeas (three 19-ounce cans)

3 cups chicken broth or homemade stock, plus more if needed

3 tablespoons olive oil (I actually used closer to 1 tablespoon)

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh

1 bay leaf

Pinch dried crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup canned tomatoes in thick puree (I used 1 cup stewed tomatoes)

1/2 cup tubetti or small macaroni (breaking up spaghetti worked really well)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound Swiss chard, tough stems removed, leaves cut into 1-inch pieces

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

Puree half of the chickpeas with 1 1/2 cups of broth in a blender or food processor.  In a large pot, heat the olive oil over moderately low heat.  Add the carrot, celery, onion, garlic and rosemary.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the remaining 1 1/2 cups broth, the pureed mixture, whole chickpeas, bay leaf, red-pepper flakes, tomatoes, pasta and salt.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered for 10 minutes.

Add the Swiss chard to the pot.  Simmer until the chard is tender and the pasta is done, 5 to 10 minutes longer.  Remove the bay leaf and stir in the black pepper.  If the soup thickens too much on standing, add a little more broth or water.

Serves 6.