Simple & hearty chickpea soup with red onions

Try something different for your chickpea soup! This recipe is a perfect comforting protein-rich winter soup made with red onions, tofu, chickpea, Jerusalem artichokes, turmeric, ginger, and a handful of fresh herbs. 

Lovely, I do hope that your January resolution on eating healthy has lined up with you eating delicious healthy meals leaving you feeling extra light, detoxified, and refreshed. 

Today I'm super excited to share with you this delicious, healthy, simple, and hearty chickpea soup that we've been enjoying lately as it keeps us warm during cold days!

This chickpea soup is a whole meal all by itself! and is quite easy to make using only a few ingredients that you mostly might have in your pantry.

While I was thinking about creating a quick recipe soup to enjoy, I wanted it to be easy and full of nutrients. I had onion soup in mind, but I didn't want the classic onion soup, it seemed to me that this chickpea soup would be perfect to fill the boxes. 

This simple, hearty, and nourishing chickpea with red onions soup is super delicious, perfect for kids and anyone who doesn't like onion texture!

The ginger adds the spicy punch while the Jerusalem artichoke has a very subtle nutty flavor that I love, and I hope you do too. Have you eaten Jerusalem artichokes before? They're a powerhouse of many phytochemicals that are beneficial to our health.

How to cook dry chickpeas

Have you ever wondered if you could cook dry chickpeas without taking hours?

I like cooking chickpeas from scratch because it's way cheaper, especially when it comes to buying organic canned chickpeas.

Let me show you how to cook dried chickpeas on a stovetop.

• If you're not sure if your chickpeas have been sorted well, pour dry chickpeas on a tray and move them with your fingers removing debris,
• Add the chickpeas in a large bowl with water, clean them and drain,
• Put more water to cover the chickpeas, about 4 times because the peas are going to swell and multiple in size.
• You can add a pinch of baking powder and leave the chickpeas to soak for at least 8 hours. Or you can omit the baking powder, go ahead and soak the peas for at least 12 hours,
• Rinse and drain the soaked chickpeas, place them in a saucepan and add water up to the level of the peas.
• Add a pinch of salt and a pinch baking soda if you hadn't added it during soaking. The baking soda will break the structure of the peas, cooking them fast and rendering them soft, be careful, however, not to add a lot, just a little amount, otherwise the peas will be reduced to purée!
• You can also cook the chickpeas without baking soda, they'll take a little longer and will not be as soft.
• Cook the chickpeas at high heat till the boiling start, then reduce to medium heat. Using a spoon try to remove the white foam as much as possible.
• Cover the saucepan, and let the chickpeas boil till tender. (Take a cooking chickpea and press it with your fingers or use a fork. Chickpeas are done if you can break them without any effort)
• Leave the chickpeas in the cooking water till they cool. 
• If you're not using the chickpeas the very day, store them in closed containers together with their water.

How to make chickpea soup

• You'll start with sautéing red onions in coconut oil, 
• Then you add ginger, turmeric, garlic, scallions, and Jerusalem artichokes,
• You then add cooked chickpeas. You can cook chickpeas from scratch as detailed above or use canned. If using canned chickpeas, read the labels well and if possible, get chickpeas that are canned ONLY in water and salt!
• Let the chickpea-onions mix cool before blending all the ingredients into a creamy filling soup that's really delicious, packed with nutrients, and is high in proteins.
• Before blending, you can scoop aside a mix of chickpea-onions for topping.
• For the full recipe, see the recipe card.

I blended green scallions, fresh parsley, and fresh cilantro without cooking them to have this bold green color. It also preserves vitamin C which is denatured by heat.

While this chickpea soup is amazingly filling on its own, we love it with our homemade bread for more flavors and additional nutrients.

Can I meal prep this chickpea soup?

• You can cook this soup in meal prep and warm it on medium heat the day you want to serve it. 
• After the soup has completely cooled, store it in an airtight container and store it in your fridge.

I hope you'll enjoy this simple & hearty chickpea soup as much as we are enjoying it. If you make it, please let me know in the comment. Some of you like leaving me a word on emails which I really do appreciate, be free and let me know your opinion about this soup.

My love to you, Githu

Looking for more healthy soup

• Weight loss vegetables soup
• Tofu soup with shiitake mushroom
• Spring onions with cherry tomatoes
• Vegan chunky potato leek soup

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Simple & hearty chickpea soup with red onions

Try something different for your chickpea soup! This is a perfect comforting protein-rich winter soup made with red onions, tofu, jerusaleme artichokes, chickpea, turmeric, ginger, and a handful of fresh herbs. 

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time30 mins

Course: dinner, entree, Soup

Cuisine: anti-inflammatory, French, plant-based, Vegan

Diet: Low Calorie, Vegan

Keyword: chickpea dinner recipe, chickpea recipe, chickpea soup, easy soup, homemade soup, onion soup, red onion recipe, vegan soup

Servings: 4 people

Calories:

Author: Githu

Cost: 10$

Equipment

• saucepan with a lid
• Chopping board
• sharp cooking knife
• Cooking spoon
• A medium bowl
• Blender

Ingredients

• 5 medium red onions
• 3 medium shallots
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• ½ teaspoon unrefined salt
• 1 piece of turmeric root (fresh)
• 1 small piece of ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon bouillon powder (optional)
• 2-3 Jerusalem artichokes
• 3 cups boiling water/broth
• 2 cups cooked chickpeas
• a handful of fresh parsley, cilantro, and scallions
• 200 grams soft soy

Instructions

• Dice the onions and shallots and bring them into a pan/saucepan
• Place on medium heat, add some coconut oil, mix well, cover, and let the onions cook as you stir now and then for 8 minutes
• Meanwhile, peel and cut the artichokes into small cubes, chop the base of scallions and dice it,
• Using a vegetable peeler, grate garlic, ginger, and turmeric. CAUTION; turmeric will stain your hands and utensils
• Bring the above ingredients into the cooking onions, add the bouillon, the salt, the curry, and stir together. Cover to cook for 4 minutes.
• Add boiling water or broth, stir well, bring to boil, then cover, and simmer for 5 minutes
• During this time, prepare the chickpeas, and chop the herbs
• Add the chickpeas in the saucepan, give a stir and cover to cook for 3-5mins.
• Cut off the heat, let the dish cool before mixing
• As you wait, put the chopped herbs and tofu in a blender and blend
• Scoop some of the cooked dish and set it aside. You'll use it to top the soup once served
• Put the remaining dish into the blender, be careful not to burn yourself, avoid adding too much hot liquid into the blender
• If you can not blend all the dish at once, add small batches and blend. This is particularly important if your blend isn't big enough to hold all the cooked dish!
• Blend all and taste to check the seasoning. If the soup is too thick add some hot water/broth
• Serve this chickpea soup immediately topping with the scooped dish. The soup can be served with some bread or on its own as a light dinner meal.

Notes

• To save you time, cook dry chickpeas days before, if not, use canned chickpeas.
• I like chopping as I cook. When the onions are cooking, chop, dice the rest of the ingredients.
• I use a blender to make my soups, feel free to use an immersion blender instead