Comfort Soup (Vegetarian Chickpea)

Submitted by evelynathens

"This is the vegetarian version of a soup I recently posted. I made it up the other day and it is real comfort food. Hearty and healthy - it makes a big pot and that's a good thing as you'll want more than one bowl."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 40mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 8-10

ingredients

• 2 medium onions, chopped fine
• 2 large fat garlic cloves, chopped fine
• 2 -3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lb chickpeas, soaked for 9-12 hours (I used the pre-peeled ones)
• 5 large carrots, grated
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1⁄3 - 1⁄2 cup pearl barley
• 1⁄4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• salt and pepper

directions

1. Saute onion, garlic and olive oil together until the onion is soft and translucent.
2. Add the chickpeas, carrots, tomato paste, bay leaf and 1 1/2 quarts water. Season to taste.
3. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered for 1/2 an hour. Add the pearl barley and simmer for another 40-60 minutes, or until the chickpeas and barley are cooked through and the soup is quite thick (if the soup is too thick, thin with a little hot water until you achieve the consistency you desire).
4. This was a really satisfying meal with a tossed green salad and garlic bread.

Reviews

[filaughn]

Tasty and easy! I threw in a can of corn I had sitting around, and substituted broth for about half of the water. I used canned chickpeas and that cut down on the time. <br/><br/>Perfect soup for a cold winter day!

 

[michyj]

I used veggie stock (powder mixed with the water) and it was really good. It had a nice little bite to it without being too hot. I'll definitely make it again. Using canned chick peas made it a quick and easy soup.

 

[Saturn]

This was good! I used tomato sauce instead of paste. I also used a can of chick peas. I will make this again!

 

[Jo_C.]

I made a half-scale amount of this soup and we liked it. I used some chickpeas that I had cooked previously and frozen so I skipped the first half hour of cooking and added the thawed chickpeas 15 minutes before the end. The soup seemed to need a lot of salt and I added a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder as well.

 

[Dianne Clewien]

As I'm not a big fan of chickpeas I changed them for a can of white beans. Plus, the tomato paste made it a little to sweet for my taste, next time I will use tomato juice. Plus I used 1 can of chicken broth for part of the water. All in all it was good and using the changes I made I will make it again.