Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Chickpea and tomato soup with Moroccan spices

Moroccan chickpea soup / Maroko kikerhernesupp

Here's a delicious chickpea/grabanzo soup recipe adapted from this book by the lovely Irish chef, Rachel Allen. It's quick, flavoursome, vegan and gluten-free (unless you serve it with crispy bacon or some herb croutons) and easy to make. It's been a while since I made it - seeing one of the few Estonian male foodbloggers making this the other day (check out the video!) - brought it back to our table. Our daughter loved it, K. loved it, and I loved it - so it's definitely a keeper. Hope you enjoy it, too!

I used canned chickpeas - dried ones are much harder to come by here in Estonia. If you prefer using dried chickpeas, then take 150 grams of pulses, soak them overnight in cold water and then boil in unsalted water for about half an hour.

Moroccan chickpea and tomato soup
(Maroko kikerhernesupp)
Serves four

Moroccan chickpea soup / Maroko kikerhernesupp

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds, slightly crushed
400 g can of chopped tomatoes
a generous pinch of sugar
400 g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
600-750 ml vegetable or chicken broth
juice of half a lemon
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander or parsley

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and celery sticks, season with salt and pepper. Cover the saucepan with a lid and sauté over low heat for about 10 minutes, until the onion and celery are soft, stirring every now and then (do not burn!)
Add the cumin seeds, fry for another minute to release the aromas.
Add the tomatoes, sugar, chickpeas and hot stock. Simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes.
Season with lemon juice, stir in the chopped herbs and taste for seasoning. Serve.

8 comments:

Deena said...

I love soup... And I will definitely never let the chance to try this in my kitchen. Cooking is my passion and it is always an accomplishment to try new recipes. Exploration is really something I love to do in cooking.

Margus said...

A really great and simple recipe. Tried it and even my 1,5 year kept asking for more.

I did however not cook the celery to be soft and did not crush the cumin seeds. Don’t know if it makes much of a difference, but the crunchy celery and cumin "surprises" were extremely nice.

Thanks for a great one.

Christopher Hinn said...

Thanks for the recipe, I love soups! And I'll try to make this one.

Kai said...

Great recipe, I heat vegetables in the following spice mix which makes this soup really addictive and delicious (and not too hot, our 2.5 year old eats it too): 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (which means that no sugar / lemon is added).

Adeeb said...

I tried this soup - subsituted celery for red pepper, and chickpeas for kidney beans. Still, the results were lovely ! Absolutely beautiful soup. God Bless

Pille said...

Deena and Christopher - thanks!

Margus - nice to hear that! I just give a quick smash to the cumin seeds - they're more aromatic this way!

Kai - that's an interesting flavour combo there!

Adeeb - nice to hear that the soup inspired you to make your own version!

oks said...

Liked it a lot, thanks! However, my soup was too sour and "lemony", I probably used too large a lemon.
Will definitely start with a smaller amount next time.

oks said...

Liked it a lot, thanks! However, my soup was too sour and "lemony", I probably used too large a lemon.
Will definitely start with a smaller amount next time.