Leek and chickpea soup

It’s so freezing outside that I thought I should share with you a soup recipe that has become one of my all-time favourites. I adore leeks and seeing as they are in season, now is an ideal time to whip this up. I really didn’t like the idea of chickpeas in soup at first – but although it only has a few ingredients, the flavour is amazing. I originally saw this made on a Jamie Oliver cooking show way back when. I’ve made it my own and no longer need the recipe to guide me. Everyone I have served it to has been impressed 🙂

So – introducing …

 Leek and Chickpea Soup

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 4 leeks
• 3 desiree potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
• 2 cans of chickpeas, drained and well rinsed
  
• 1.5 – 2 litres of chicken stock
• Parmesan cheese (to serve, but optional)

Cut leeks down the middle, discarding the tough green part at the top, and clean thoroughly under running water. Chop fairly finely.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add leeks and a few good pinches of salt. The salt will not only add flavour, but allow the leeks to wilt, without colouring. This should take about five minutes over a medium heat – ensure you keep an eye on it and stir regularly.

Add the potatoes, along with the chickpeas and cook until heated through. Add stock at this point – enough to generously cover the mixture.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes, or until potato cubes are tender.

Remove from heat and using a stick mixer (or blender), blitz the ingredients, but leave some chunky bits.

Blitzing ensures the soup is beautiful and creamy, but leaving some chunky bits of chickpea and leek means there is really nice texture too. However, feel free to blitz to a smooth consistency if that’s what you prefer.

Bring back to the simmer – now you can judge whether more stock needs to be added. Just add more until the texture is to your liking. Make sure you have a taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve drizzled with some olive oil and shavings of parmesan cheese.

This soup really is a meal in a bowl and also makes a fantastic lunch. You can freeze it too, if you want – but I find this one disappears out of the fridge pretty quickly!

My Groovy Kitchen Tunes track for this warm, nutty soup would have to be Dark Storm, by The Jezebels. Its title is reflective of our weather here in Victoria at the moment, but there’s something warming and hopeful about it at the same time. Curl up on the couch tonight in front of the TV, pop a blanket over you and enjoy this soup and just think, the weekend is nearly here!! Sounds like a perfect Wednesday night to me 🙂

The Weekly Cook Up – Chicken noodle soup

I don’t know what the weather is like in your part of the world, but here it’s delivering mostly sunny days, but the evenings have inherited that true winter chill we haven’t felt for a while here in southern Australia.

While this is a cue for most people to pull out their fluffy ugg boots, cardigans and to curl up and watch TV with a nice warm blanket over your lap – for me, it’s also about cooking really yummy soups. Mostly, I take them to work for lunch, because I generally have a decent appetite at dinner time and really want something substantial. However, this chicken soup is a true meal.

With cooler weather comes colds and flues, and if you haven’t heard, chicken soup has wonderful medicinal, anti-inflamatory properties. All the more reason to get into the kitchen this weekend and cook up a nice big batch. This recipe will give you four to six large serves. It’s healthy, warming and completely delish!

Most of us have a long weekend ahead (Happy Easter, by the way!!) so now is a great time to get in the kitchen and do some cook ups. Don’t forget to check out these other fabulous recipes which will help you fill your freezer.

Delicious Dal

Braised pork chops with apples and cabbage

Ginger and coriander curry

Chicken Soup

The broth

– 1 whole free-range chicken

– 3 stalks of celery – roughly chopped (include top leaves for extra flavour)

– 3 carrots – roughly chopped

– 3 large red onions, unpeeled, roughly chopped

– 1 handful of fresh parsley

– 2 leeks (use only white parts) roughly chopped

– 3 cloves of garlic – whole with skin on

– 6 peppercorns

– 2 bay leaves

– A few good pinches of sea salt (to taste)

– I stalk of lemon grass – bruised (optional)

The soup

– 3 stalks of celery, washed and diced

– 2 leeks, washed and diced (use only the white part)

– 1 packet of vermicelli noodles

– The flesh of a whole cooked chicken (cooked using the broth above)

– 3 tablespoons of soy sauce (or to taste)

– Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

 

Combine all ingredients for the broth in a large stock pot and pour over enough cold water to cover all the vegetables and to ensure the chicken is submerged.

Cover and simmer very gently for about 1 hour.

Remove from heat, retrieve the chicken and set aside.

Strain the liquid into a clean bowl, pressing the vegetables to extract the flavour. Transfer back into the saucepan and allow to cool.  Discard the cooked vegies.

 

Meanwhile, once the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull it apart with your hands, discarding the skin and bones, and separate the tender flesh into chunks. Set these aside for later.

Once the broth has cooled, scoop away any fat or impurities that have risen to the top and discard them. This leaves a beautiful, clean broth. An easy way to do this is to pop the cooled broth into the fridge overnight. The next day the fat and impurities will have formed a skin on top, making it even easier to skim and discard.

 

Bring the broth back up to the boil and add the remaining soup ingredients. Simmer until the noodles are cooked through, which sound only take a few minutes. Before serving, check for seasoning. I find this needs quite a bit of salt to bring out all the subtle flavours – so make sure you taste it and adjust to your tastes.

 

Serve in big bowls, with some nice, crusty bread.

Alternatively, if you’d like to freeze this for later use, pour into containers, label and freeze for up to three months. This can be reheated easily in the microwave and makes perfect lunches to take to work.

 

What kinds of soups do you look forward to eating in winter? I’m always looking for new ones to try!

Stay tuned for even more soups as the weather gets cooler!

 

Be Inspired~

Lisa

 

Day 18: Leek and chickpea soup

Day 18 brings you one of my dad’s favourite soups.

I remember the first time I made it – I could tell he was a little bit unsure about the idea of a soup containing chickpeas. But, once he tasted it – he loved it – which makes me a very happy daughter 🙂

I can’t quite remember where I got the inspiration for this recipe. I just make it – no recipe required. It’s well and truly ingrained in my brain.

This soup makes a perfect lunch – and it’s terrific because the chickpeas make it really low GI. It’s filling and tasty and will ensure you don’t have one of those mad sugar cravings when 3pm rocks around.

Leek and chickpea soup

• 3 large leeks, cleaned and sliced
• 1 nob of butter
• 2 deseree potatoes – peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• Enough chicken stock to cover the ingredients (get the recipe to make your own here)
• Grated parmesan cheese to serve

Method:

In a large saucepan, melt the butter before adding the chopped leaks with a good pinch of salt. Cook the leeks over a low heat for about 10 minutes – but don’t allow them to colour. You want them to sweat and the salt will help to draw out the liquid in the leeks.

Add the potatoes and chickpeas and cover with enough chicken stock to cover everything. Cook until the potato is tender – about 10-15 minutes.

Blend using a stick mixer or spoon into your blender until the soup is smooth and creamy. If the soup is too thick at this point, thin down with a little more chicken stock. Don’t forget to taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve nice and hot with some parmesan cheese grated over the top.

This soup really is easy, incredible tasty and very fast to make. Hope you enjoy it.

Be Inspired~

Lisa

 

 

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Day 12 – Brew your own stock

Day 12 of the Inspiration Challenge has arrived and today I’m going to say that everyone should be making their own stock.

However, I do wholeheartedly admit that I sometimes use stock that comes in a carton and I even sometimes use stock powder. If you told a chef about this, then they would probably have a hissy fit! But hey, lets face it – we’re all busy people and we don’t always have time to brew up our own stock of a weekend.

In saying that, making your own is incredibly rewarding and sooo much healthier and tastier then the stuff from the supermarket. The other great thing is that you can make it in a massive batch and freeze it for later use – which is very, very convenient and when stored this way, is just as fuss-free as the non-homemade stuff.

So next time you have some free time, I urge you to make your own stock. I have a basic vegie stock recipe that I use – and then I just add the relevant bones I want depending if I want chicken, beef, lamb or fish stock.

Basic Stock

  



 

– 3 stalks of celery – roughly chopped (include top leaves for extra flavour)

– 3 carrots – roughly chopped

– 2 large brown onions, unpeeled, roughly chopped

– 1 handful of fresh parsley

– 2 leeks (use only white parts) roughly chopped

– 3 cloves of garlic – crushed

– 8 pepper corns

– 2 bay leaves

– A few good pinches of sea salt (to taste)

  

Add about 1kg of beef or lamb bones, or 2 chicken carcases – depending on what kind of stock you want to make.

 

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and pour over 4 litres of cold water.

Cover and simmer gently for about 1 hour.

Remove from heat and strain into a clean bowl, pressing the vegetables to extract the flavour.

Make sure you taste the stock at this point and adjust the seasoning to taste.

 

You can use the stock from this point – however, unless I’m using vegetables only – I like to let the stock cool – transfer it into an appropriate container and then refrigerate overnight.

 

What then happens is any fats in the stock rise to the top and harden flightly. It’s easy to then get a large spoon and skim the yuckiness of the top. This makes the stock taste clean and lovely, and ensures you don’t eat all that fat!

These stock are so versatile – they can be used for soups, risottos, casseroles – anything and anything really.

Be Inspired~

Lisa

 

 

 

Day 9: Leek and potato soup

Day 9 of the Inspiration Challenge has arrived and while summer is approaching, I wanted to share with you my favourite soup of all time.

I reckon Tuesday is the day when you are well and truly in the swing of the working week, you are starting to dream of the weekend and so sometimes want to just put your head down and ride out the rest of the week – with a minimum of fuss.

I think this soup is ideal mid-week. It’s full of flavour, filling enough to be a meal, as long as you serve it with some nice, crusty bread, and it’s easy to prepare.

Mum made this from a recipe book once. She’d never really used leeks before and wanted to try them. We have both been making this ever since.

I have made it a few times as an entrée at dinner parties and everyone has always loved it. Matt also said this was a critical one to post – it’s one of his favourites and in his words that makes it “very blogworthy”.

So – this is for Matt – maybe he’ll even print it out and make it for me one day 😉

Leek and Potato Soup

• 3 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs of butter
• 3 large leeks, washed well and thinly sliced
• 5 large potatoes (desiree preferably) peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 to 1.5 litres of chicken stock
• 3 rashers of middle bacon – rind removed and diced
• 1 cup of warm milk
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

In a large, heavy-based saucepan, melt the butter and olive oil together. Putting the two in together ensures that the butter won’t burn as quickly as what it normally would.

Add the leeks and a few good pinches of salt. Turn the heat onto low and allow the leeks to cook down for about 10 minutes. However, you don’t want them to get any colour.  The salt will help them to sweat.

Add the potatoes, a good amount of freshly cracked black pepper and enough stock to over everything. You may not need the full 1.5 litres – just use your judgement.

Bring to the oil and turn down to a simmer. Cover and cook until the potatoes and soft.

While the soup is cooking, cook the bacon in a frying pan in a little olive oil until it goes crispy. Lay out on some absorbent paper and set aside.

Once the potatoes are tender – take it off the heat and use a stick mixer or transfer to a blender and mix until it’s a nice, smooth consistency.

Transfer the soup back into the saucepan and place back on the stove, over a low heat. Add the warm milk to the soup and stir through. If you think the consistency is too thick at this point, you can add some more stock to thin it out. Taste the soup for seasoning, and adjust to taste.

Serve the soup into bowls and scatter the bacon over the top.

Serve with some nice, crusty sourdough.

Enjoy 🙂

Be Inspired~

Lisa