Chickpea and Tomato Soup (Shawrbat An-Nikhi)

Engrossed's Note:

From: "Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa" by Habeeb Salloum. Arabian Gulf. See my Gulf Spices (Ibzar). Time does not include soaking chickpeas overnight. I'm sure canned chickpeas could be used to save time.

• Total Time: 3 hrs 40 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 3 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 cup chickpeas , soaked overnight and drained (garbanzo beans)
• 8 cups water
• 1 -4 tablespoon olive oil (original is 4tbsp)
• 4 tablespoons fresh cilantro , finely chopped
• 2 medium onions , chopped
• 1 (15 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons ibzar mixed spice (Gulf Spices (Ibzar))
• 1⁄8; teaspoon cayenne
• salt , to taste

Directions:

1. Place chickpeas and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat for 2 to 3 hours or until chickpeas are well cooked, adding more water if necessary.
2. In the meantime, heat oil in a frying pan and saute cilantro and onions over medium heat for 10 minutes.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients and cook for another 10 minutes.
4. Add frying pan contents to the chickpeas and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes; then remove from heat.
5. Use an immersion blender to puree the mixture in the pot, add more water if desired.
6. Heat through and serve.

Reviews

[UmmBinat]

This has really good flavour but would be too spicy if I added the cayenne too so I just omitted it as it was already in Gulf Spices (Ibzar) which I used and even that I cut down the cayenne quite a bit. I think I added extra chickpeas because mine for which I blended 3/4's was lighter in colour than mikekey's picture. I added a bit extra fresh cilantro as we love it. I would make this again, maybe not pureeing it at all.

[Maito]

This is a very good soup! It has great flavors and quite a kick. I used 1 can of garbanzo beans, about 2 cups of homemade stock, 1 onion, and added 2 cloves of garlic. It looked so beautiful, I couldn't bring myself to puree it! It would be great with a little brown rice in it too. If serving this as an entree, will feed 2-3.

[Mikekey]

This really hit the spot, since we were both suffering from colds. What a nice blend of flavors. I used Engrossed's Gulf Spices (Ibzar). I also did the "quick" method with canned chickpeas.