This chickpea soup recipe is a great transitional food as we move from beach weather into the autumn, and is a great way to start a Monday morning detox, particularly if you consumed too much meat over the weekend.
Chickpea Soup Recipe
Ingredients
For the chickpea soup:
- 500 g chickpeas
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 onions (finely chopped)
- 1 clove garlic (crushed)
- 1 carrot (grated)
- 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- Salt
- Pepper
- Chili flakes or hot pepper (optional)
Instructions
For the chickpeas
- To have a creamy texture, the chickpease need a good soak, especially if you’re unsure about the quality of the legumes.
- First, soak them for 24 hours.
- Rinse them and place them in a pot with plenty of water to boil for 10 minutes.
- Skim off the foam that forms during boiling.
- Strain them in a colander and rinse the pot.
For the soup:
- Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the pot.
- Sauté the crushed garlic clove for 1 minute, then remove it.
- Add the finely chopped onion and let it soften for a few minutes in the oil.
- Add the chickpeas and sauté for 2-3 minutes, allowing them to be coated with the olive oil.
- Add the grated carrot and warm water, about 1.5 liters, to cover the ingredients.
- Cover the pot and simmer on medium heat until the chickpeas are tender but still hold their shape, without peeling or becoming mushy, about 1 hour.
- If additional water is needed during cooking, it must be hot so as not to disrupt the boiling process.
- Add salt and pepper toward the end of the cooking time.
- Once cooked, increase the heat, add the remaining olive oil and the lemon juice, and stir with a wooden spoon.
- This will thicken the soup and bind the broth.
For the tahini-lemon sauce:
- Once the chickpea soup is cooked, thicken it with tahini-lemon sauce.
- Place the tahini (whole grain) in a bowl.
- Add the juice of one lemon and mix.
- Then add half a cup of room temperature water and stir. At this stage, the tahini will thicken quite a bit.
- Turn off the heat for the chickpea soup.
- Take a ladle of hot broth from the chickpea soup and thin the tahini with it, stirring with a spoon, just like you would when making avgolemono (egg-lemon sauce).
- Finally, pour the diluted tahini-lemon mixture over the lemony chickpea soup and stir.
- Add a bit of finely chopped dill, which pairs wonderfully.
- Serve the chickpeas with the tahini-lemon sauce in deep plates.
- Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and, if desired, sprinkle with a little chili flakes.
Secrets for creamy chickpeas:
If you can’t soak them for 24 hours, place them in a bowl, cover with water, and add 2-3 tablespoons of coarse salt or a little baking soda. Leave them for at least 8 hours, until they swell and double in volume.
Soaking is important because chickpeas are a legume that can take a long time to cook properly.
Simmer over medium heat, not high, as they shouldn’t fall apart.
Source: Argiro