This is one of the tastiest soups I’ve ever made and even though it take a while to cook, it’s really simple. More importantly, I’ve learnt an easy method for making a base that makes ANY soup super flavorful which I’m about to share with you all!

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First and foremost, when you decide you’re going to make this, make sure you give yourself enough time to soak the dried chickpeas. I would recommend soaking them over night but if you’re in a pinch and you really want to make this – which is what happened to me last week – you can soak them for at least an hour in hot water. If you’re going to be soaking over night there’s no need to use hot or warm water.

Here, I used 500g of dried chickpeas – keep in mind that this makes A LOT of soup, around 6 plate fulls so if you’d like to half the ingredients for say two people and some left overs feel free to do so.

For the base, you’re going to need a lot of veggies – which somehow turn into really delicious, barely-there, hearty and warming ingredients. This is why it’s so great to use as a base for many soups! I used:

3 tablespoons olive oil, 6 carrots, 4 onions, 2 marrows / zucchini and 8 cloves of garlic

Now, I realize that the sheer amount of garlic may make me seem like a I’m a crazy garlic lady (which I am – garlic has incredible healing power which is so needed this time of year especially) but seriously, trust me on this one, by the time you eat the soup, it’s been cooked down for so long and other things go in that make it so so yummy. Because of the sheer volume of veggies I used my food processor to chop these up into fine strips. You could also add some celery here, which I did add last time I made this a few weeks ago but was out of this week.

This is what you’re going to start out with – The base ingredients fill up half of the pot before you start cooking them down but soon they dwindle into literally half the size or even less. This is when we start adding the other ingredients.

Just to recap, on medium heat, in a large soup pot, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 6 carrots, 2 marrows, 4 onions and 8 cloves garlic. To this veggie base I like adding a teaspoon on chili flakes and 2 teaspoons of turmeric, but they’re both optional. Allow to cook on medium heat for 20-30 minutes.

Once your base looks something like this – image above – you can start adding the rest of the ingredients. Here you could add some panchetta or bacon bits, which I have used in the past and it does give a really nice flavor but honestly, this soup is so flavorful on it’s own that it really isn’t necessary. So, at this point I added some salt, and the following ingredients.

Soaked chickpeas with the soaking water (dried white beans work just as well here too)

A big bunch of kale – remove tough stems and tear leaves with your hands (you could also use spinach or a head of broccoli)

A bit of tomato passata and some fresh cherry tomatoes – sliced in half. (you could use all passata or all fresh tomatoes – about a cup or a cup and a half in total depending on your preference)

Once you’ve added the above ingredients, top it off with with some vegetable stock or water and a veggie stock pot or cube. Just make sure that the chickpeas are completely submerged in water. You really don’t want to bite into an under cooked chickpea – not so nice!

Now, all you have to do is let it cook on the stove on medium to low heat until the chickpeas are cooked through and tender. If you’ve soaked them over night, it will probably take two hours, if not, it can take up to three hours. I know, it’s mad right?? Cooking soup for three hours sounds insane! BUT I make this when I have an afternoon at home doing a million other things and just let it simmer in the background. It is a really long cooking time but at the same time, for the couple of hours it’s cooking, you don’t have to do anything to it so it’s not too bad.

This is the end result – super flavorful veggie soup filled with TONS of nutrients and so good for you. Loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber and pure goodness – and it keeps in the fridge for five days easily! It might keep longer but we always eat it by then so I’m not sure if it does.

Optional add-on:

Cook some fine pasta separately (the type you would use in say chicken broth) and add a couple of spoonfulls to your plate and top with some grana padano or parmesan – oh so good!

Ingredient Recap:

6 carrots

4 onions

8 cloves garlic

3 tablespoons olive oils

1 teaspoon chili flakes

2 teaspoons turmeric

6 celery stalks (optional – I didn’t use any here because I ran out)

500 grams dried chickpeas (soaked)

a bunch of kale (spinach and / or broccoli works well too)

tomato puree / passata and / or fresh cherry tomatoes – 1 – 1.5 cups total

veg stock or water and a veg stock cube

I’ve listed all the ingredients above in order of use to make it easier to view and purchase necessary ingredients – this way you won’t have to scroll up and down every two minutes – which is what I do every time I’m following a recipe.

If you do try this at home, please do let me know! tag me on instagram or facebook or leave a comment below. Would love to hear what you think 🙂

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Sarah’s Healthy Eats – @holisticnutritionninja

Thank you for taking the time to be here and read this ❤

Until my next post, be well xXx