Aka “the can soup”. I know, this is not at all a summer soup, let alone a June soup, but it has been raining like s*** for days over Paris, and tonight I was fed up, and I was nervous, and I was officially on a diet (the Monday syndrome), and it *is* June after all. I needed to cook at that very moment, more than anything, otherwise I felt like my head was going to explode from waiting for an answer for a job. But I didn’t want to cook something that would be too heavy (cf: the diet) and subsequently fall into a self-hate spiral. To make things easier, I was also on a budget (since I had already made a grocery run in the morning, and really, twice a day seems like too much, even for me. I always feel so ashamed looking at the lady at the check-out counter.)
Somehow, this soup fit the bill perfectly. Even mid-June. My tag cloud tells me I’m a huge chick pea and tomato fan, and this is yet another example of it. Simple, comforting, Mediterranean, tasty.
Notice the orange bowl? Yeah, that was the “summer” touch. I tried. Oh, and I almost forgot: this soup is apparently Turkish –how’s that for summer?
_______________________________________________________
Chick pea and tomato soup with beans
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 (15 oz) can chick peas, rinsed and drained
- 1 (15 oz) can white beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (15 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, with juices, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 onions, sliced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cups vegetable stock (or chicken if not vegetarian)
- 1 tsp dried mint
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp sumac
Directions:
1. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven or sauce pan. Add garlic, cook for 1 minute, until fragrant. Lower heat to medium, add sliced onions, cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened.
2. Add all spices to the pan and stir to incorporate the flavors. Add chick peas and beans, stir, cook for 3 minutes.
3. Add peeled tomatoes and stock. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, covered.
_______________________________________________________
My tips:
- Be careful when chopping the whole tomatoes, the juices have a tendency to splash out!
- I used a can of baked white beans that I rinsed, because that’s all they had at my grocery store: it worked beautifully.
- Cook ahead of time and reheat the next day: the flavors will stand out even more.
Source: adapted from Sel et Sucre.
