Chickpea Vegetable Soup

November 21, 2018

This recipe, adapted from Melissa Clark of The New York Times, is comfort and nutrition at its best. The chickpeas (garbanzos) cook with a parmesan cheese rind, onion,garlic and olive oil making a luxurious flavorful broth–just using water. The carrots and tomato up the nutrition providing lots of lycopene and beta carotene. The original recipe calls to serve it with a mixture of chopped rosemary, grated Parmesan, lemon zest and pepper. As we didn’t have rosemary or lemon, we served it with a Carrot Top Pesto we had made from our farmers market carrots and farmers cheese we get from a CSA from Rosie Belle Farm. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1onion, chopped

1 poundchickpeas, soaked

3garlic cloves, chopped

Parmesan or Romano Cheese rinds

1/3 cupextra virgin olive oil

6 cupswater (or chicken or vegetable broth)

1 tablespoonsalt

1 (14-ounce) can or 2 cupsdiced tomatoes

3carrots, sliced into rounds

Pesto

farmer or feta cheese

Preparation

Place onion, chickpeas, garlic, olive oil, salt and cheese rind in a large saucepan. Add 6 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about an hour, or until chickpeas are tender.
Add the tomatoes and carrots, cover loosely, and simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 25 minutes longer.
Season the soup to taste and ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with the Parmesan mixture or pesto and a soft farmer cheese.