Chickpea (Garbanzo Bean) Soup Recipe with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil

After I made the crispy roasted chickpeas recently, I got a bit fixated on those little round orbs of flavor and ended up making several chickpea recipes in a row. This was one of them, and before I give you the recipe I'm going to make a confession: this is the first time I've soaked dried chickpeas and cooked them. Not that there's anything shameful about using canned chickpeas, but WOW did the freshly cooked chickpeas taste wonderful in this soup. Even better, the liquid the chickpeas were cooked in became the base of the soup, which made it extra flavorful.

In Utah the weather is still making me think about soup, but we've (finally!) had a few sunny days, which always makes me start dreaming about my garden. I used a generous amount of last summer's frozen basil in this recipe, since there's still quite a bit of it hanging out in the freezer. If you have to buy basil, you can certainly get by with a lot less. You can also definitely make this soup with canned chickpeas (and you don't even have to confess to anyone who eats it) but I'll be cooking my own from now on when I'm using them for soup.

Chickpea Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil
(Makes about 6 servings, recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from this Vegetarian Lentil Soup from The Sugar Solution Cookbook.

1 cup dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans), soaked at least 8 hours or overnight in cold water
6 cups homemade chicken stock or 4 cans chicken broth (you could make this a vegetarian soup by using vegetable broth)
1 yellow onion, diced
6-8 cloves garlic, diced very small
1 T olive oil (or less, depending on your pan)
1 can diced tomatoes with juice (I like Muir Glen Organic Tomatoes)
3-4 cups chopped baby spinach (measure before chopping)
2-4 T chopped fresh basil (I used my frozen basil)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Soak chickpeas overnight or for at least 8 hours in cold water. Drain chickpeas and discard water, and pick out any loose skins that have come off.

Put chickpeas in heavy soup pot with chicken stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chickpeas are tender. This will depend on how fresh the dried chickpeas were, but for me it took about an hour. Use a spoon or stock skimmer to remove any foam that appears.

When chickpeas are tender, heat olive oil in heavy frying pan, then saute onions about 5 minutes, until fairly soft. Add garlic and cook 2-3 minutes more. Add onions and garlic to soup pot with diced tomatoes. Let soup simmer on low heat about 30 minutes.

Add chopped spinach to soup (adding a bit more water or chicken stock if needed) and simmer 15-30 minutes more. I used my beloved Braun Immersion Blender at this point to slightly break up the ingredients. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can put about 1/3 of the soup into a food processor or blender and pulse a few times. You can skip this step completely too, if you'd like a chunkier soup.

Stir in chopped basil and cook 5 minutes. Season soup with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste and serve hot. This is wonderful topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese. (If you have some parmesan rinds, throw them into the soup while it's cooking for even more flavor.)

South Beach Suggestions:
Soup like this is a perfect main dish for any phase of the South Beach Diet. Garbanzo beans are considered a "good carb" on South Beach and are approved for any phase of the diet.

More Soups with Chickpeas:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients.)
Chicken Soup with Garbanzos and Oregano
Roasted Tomato Soup with Ground Beef, Sausage, Garbanzos, Macaroni, and Basil
Garbanzo and White Bean Soup with Lamb and Rosemary
Garbanzo Bean Soup with Israeli Cous Cous from Gourmet Girl
Garbanzo Bean Soup with Saffron from Superspark
Spicy Bean Soup from Fingerlicking Food
North African Chickpea and Kale Soup from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
Chorizo and Chickpea Soup from Morsels and Musings
Swiss Chard, Beef, and Chickpea Soup from Daily Unadventures in Cooking
Chickpea Hot Pot from 101 Cookbooks

Things you might want to know:
You can get Kalyn's recipes by e-mail.
There's a great way to print recipes on Kalyn's Kitchen.
It's easy to find out who's hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.
There are actual rules for Weekend Herb Blogging.
Here is another place where I write more about food.

Tags:
Food Recipes Cooking South Beach Diet Recipes
Low Carb Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes
Diabetes Friendly Recipes