Capsicum, Spinach, and Chickpea Soup
I really need to catch up on some of my recipes. I am embarrassingly behind. I only now thought to make time to write this one up because @onestarrynight requested healthy recipes. Now, on to the recipe:
Capsicum, Spinach, and Chickpea Soup
from Vegetarian Cooking: A Common Sense Guide by Bay Books
Cooked on: October 16, 2011
Servings: supposedly 4. I would say more than that.
Cost: Inexpensive
Skill level: Novice. Be sure to follow instructions.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
8 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced
1 red capsicum (pepper), finely diced (I used a medium fish pepper)
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds
375 ml (13 fl oz/1 1/2 cups) tomato passata (pureed tomatoes)
750 ml (26 fl oz/3 cups) vegetable stock
300 g (10 1/2 oz) tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 – 2 tsp sugar
100 g 3 1/2 oz/2 1/4 cups baby English spinach leaves
Procedure
Heat olive oil in a large heavy-based saucepan. Add the spring onion, cover and cook over medium heat for 2 – 3 minutes, or until softened. Add the capsicum, garlic, and cumin seeds, and cook for 1 minute.
Add the passata and stock and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the chickpeas, vinegar, and sugar, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Stir in the baby spinach and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook just until the spinach begins to wilt, then serve.
My Notes
I added the spinach as I served it into each bowl. It doesn’t take long for the spinach to get wilty and my husband reacts badly to spinach, so I served him without any.
This is a really awesome dish. It is very easy to make and would be easy to make it the way you prefer it to be. I used a medium pepper left over from my venture to the farmer’s market. Mmmm. It added just the right spiciness.
