Courgette, chickpea and herb soup
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 1 courgette, sliced into 4 lengthways and roughly chopped
- Broccoli stalk, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed and diced
- 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh or dried light herbs (oregano, chives, parsley)
- 400g tin (400ml) cold water
- 1 teaspoon bouillon or stock
- Parmesan rind
- Maldon Sea Salt
- Black pepper
- 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
Timings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes
Courgette, chickpea and herb soup
This is a beautiful green soup which is perfect for spring. Here the freshness of courgettes and herbs and warmth of the garlic are combined with the chickpeas for sustenance and texture.
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the courgettes, broccoli stalk, onion, celery and garlic. Cook over a high heat for 3 minutes or until the vegetables start to gently brown. Turn down the heat and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every now and again so it doesn’t burn. A caramel brown colour is what you are looking for as this will give you the sweetness from the vegetables and add flavour to your soup.
Next add the chickpeas, herbs, water, stock, Parmesan rind and pepper. Bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and take out the Parmesan rind.Ā Blitz and taste to see if it needs seasoning. If you feel it needs a lift add salt, pepper or some lemon zest little by little, tasting between each addition until you feel the balance is right.
DOWNLOAD OR PRINT RECIPE HERE.
A super-charged healthful soup which will keep in the fridge for 3 days or freeze well if you have any leftovers. I always save the ends of the Parmesan for a moment like this. The rind adds a creamy saltiness and seems which is slowly released as it simmers away.”
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