Appetizers / Soups / Salads

Chickpea Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil takes several minutes to prepare.

Chickpea Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil takes several minutes to cook.

Chickpea Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil makes 5 servings.

The ingredients for Chickpea Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil are:

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, 14.5 oz size (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, can also use basil pesto if you don't have any basil)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Here is how you make Chickpea Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil:

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.)Serving Size: Makes 6 servingsNumber of Servings: 5Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user TOPWESSELTON.

The nutritional information for Chickpea Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Basil is:

• Servings Per Recipe: 5
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 128.3

• Total Fat: 4.2 g
• Cholesterol: 7.0 mg
• Sodium: 1,596.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 18.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.7 g
• Protein: 5.5 g