North African Vegetable Soup

Submitted by MsBindy

"Posted for Zaar World Tour. Source is Sundays at Moosewood."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 20
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 cup onion, finely chopped
• 2 celery ribs, diced
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 small potato, chopped
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 4 small tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup tomato juice
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 small zucchini, finely chopped
• 1⁄2 cup curly vermicelli, crumbled
• 1 cup chickpeas (canned or cooked)
• 1⁄4 cup fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper

• Garnish

• fresh parsley, chopped
• fresh mint leaves
• red bell peppers or pimiento strip

directions

1. In a soup pot, saute the onions and celery in the oil until onions are translucent.
2. Add the spices, potatoes, and carrots and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring often.
3. Mix in the tomatoes, tomato juice and stock and simmer until all of the vegetables are almost tender.
4. Add the zucchini and vermicelli and simmer for about 5 minutes longer.
5. Mix in the chick peas, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.
6. Garnish with chopped parsley, mint leaves, and strips of red bell pepper or pimiento.

Reviews

[Jo_C.]

This was quite good, but there was to much lemon juice for my liking. I should have re-read the other reviews before I made it! The only thing I changed was to use rice pasta. I'll make this again, but add lemon juice to taste.

 

[Gerry]

I have to agree that this is a very attractive soup with great eye appeal, and best of all, it tastes good! I did have to take a few small liberties ... I didn't have fresh tomatoes so used a can of plum tomatoes and my zucchini in storage was really huge so did a bit of guess work. I did go a touch light on the lemon juice. A definite five, just as I expected from a Moosewood recipe! Thank you for sharing.

 

[francoroni]

This was so good, and extremely quick and fast to pull together! I made a double batch the first night, and liked it so much that I made another double batch the next night to freeze! I omitted celery and tomato juice because I didn't have them on hand, and used canned tomatoes in place of fresh. I used frozen mixed veggies in place of zucchini. I doubled the potatoes and carrots. I used rice in place of vermicelli, and I added the rice when I added the vegetable stock. I used about half the lemon juice.

 

[sugarpea]

Dh liked this fairly well but I'm afraid it was just too tart with lemon juice for me. I forgot to add it gradually and sure enough... just too intense.

 

[PaulaG]

This soup makes a very attractive dish. The colors are so vibrant and garnished with red pepper strips and mint it has so much eye appeal. The blending of flavors is also excellent. The only changes I made were to slice a large leek and replace the onion with it and reduce the vegetable oil. The cayenne pepper adds a little kick but not overpowering. This is a nice healthy dinner for a cooler fall evening. Thanks!