Lemony chickpea and leafy green soup

4 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 teaspoon Oil and/or margarine
1 small Onion; finely chopped
2 Garlic cloves or to taste; finely chopped
1 pinch Garlic salt; optional
⅛ teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
1 pinch Sugar; white or brown
1 teaspoon Chopped fresh basil; or herb of choice
2 cups Cooked chickpeas -15oz; see prep note
1 teaspoon Lemon zest; short julienne
Defatted broth; OR
4 cups Water; and more as needed
3 Servings vegetable bouillon; cubes or packets
1 cup Chopped fresh spinach; or green of choice
1 tablespoon Chopped fresh parsley; or more
2 tablespoons Fresh lemon juice; more or less OR lemon wedges

Directions

ADDITIONS

Some might call this a "raw" soup. It's ready in under 20 minutes and tastes more "mingled" than "blended." We like that. It's restorative and refreshing to taste the greens and beans along with the seasonings, two of our favorites: fresh basil and lemon. Start the soup with softened onion and garlic and add mashed cooked garbanzo beans and broth. The leaf greens are chopped and added raw to the soup to cook up to 15 minutes. Most greens will cook that quickly, even kale when young. Try the soup with spinach, sorrel, escarole, young chard or romaine. We tested ours with a combination of spinach and sorrel.

1. PREP: After rinsing the chickpeas (garbanzo beans or ceci), transfer to a bowl and crush with a potato masher. If you prefer a smoother soup, add water while mashing the beans or puree the beans with water in a processer.

2. Heat oil(s) in 3-qt saucepan over medium. Add onion and garlic, salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until the onions are soft. Reduce the heat and add sugar and fresh basil and cook, stirring, until the basil is aromatic.

3. Add the crushed chickpeas and lemon peel; stir to combine. Then add water and bouillon; Defatted chicken or vegetable broth may be substituted.

Bring just to a boil. Add the chopped spinach and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes. You may want to add water to thin the soup 4. Remove from heat. Add the parsley and stir well to warm it. Taste and adjust pepper, if necessary. Add the lemon juice or serve lemon wedges with the soup at table. Serve hot.

PER BOWL: 173 cals; 4g fat (19% cff) Recipe adapted from "Lemony Chickpea and Escarole Soup," in SAVED BY SOUP: More than 100 Delicious Low-Fat Soups to Eat and Enjoy Every Day, by Judith Barrett (1999: Morrow). Judith's version skipped the lemon zest and basil and used more greens. She cooked the soup in 2 stages. 1) 10 to 20 minutes to mellow the flavors of chickpeas, onion, garlic and broth. Puree the result. 2) Add chopped one head escarole, chopped (6 cups); lemon juice, pepper and parsley and cook another 10 minutes.

Recipe tested by Pat and Bob. Reheat well. We used SmartBalance Spread with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil; low-salt vegetable bouillon. 12/98

Recipe by: Pat Hanneman, Riverside (1998 Dec) Posted to EAT-LF Digest by Pat Hanneman <kitpath@...> on Jan 04, 1999, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

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