When we do cooking demos at our farm to workplace sites, attendees are always looking for quick, minimal effort recipes and methods. Although personally, I love to spend hours in my kitchen, I also love to show people that cooking good food doesn’t have to be difficult or take long.
Yvonne Brunot prepared this recipe at a demo and I thought it was an ideal fit for our soup theme. First, it showed that soups don’t have to take hours. In fact, just half an hour can work fine.
Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Soup
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, medium diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 heaping teaspoon sweet paprika
2 cups or 1 14oz can chopped tomatoes
3 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
1 quart vegetable broth or reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon sugar
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
5-ounces baby spinach
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until the onions begin to turn translucent; lower heat if browning starts to occur. Add spices and saute a minute or so. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, and broth. Season with a couple of pinches of salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Stir well. Chickpeas should be just covered with liquid. Add some water, if needed.
Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to low and gently simmer for 25 minutes.
Remove soup from heat. Use a potato masher or immersion blender to mash up some of the chickpeas right in the pot. Stir in the spinach and let heat through until wilted, just a couple of minutes. Season again, to taste, with salt and pepper. Serve.
Adapted from Dave Lieberman at foodnetwork.com