chickpea soup

Using Beans and Greens in Soup

Here’s a nice vegetable heavy soup featuring chickpeas or other beans and some form of greens – kale, spinach, collards, Swiss chard….whatever you have really. Leave out the bacon or pancetta to make it truly vegetarian.

Spring seems to be delayed with a snowstorm in May, so I decided to see what was in the pantry that I could turn into soup. Snow requires warm comfort food! I had canned chickpeas (garbanzo’s) and plenty of greens in the fridge. So I chose the kale, though collards, spinach, broccoli rabe, broccolini or any other greens would work as well. Add as much or as few greens as you want.

Soup starts with a simple mirepoix – celery, onion and carrot, then more flavor with garlic, which I grate. Minced up is fine too.

Mirepoix – onion, carrots and celery chopped up, garlic standing by
Grated garlic

I like to spice things up a little with smoky flavors. In this soup I used a little bit of smoked Santa Fe Chile powder. Smoked paprika would also be fine. I also used bacon, which I had on hand. Pancetta would be fine as well, though it won’t add any smoky flavor. I keep some slab bacon on hand, so I can slice it as thick as I like and then dice up. It’s a bit heartier than just chopping regular slice bacon. However, not required, use what you have.

  • Slab Bacon
kale, ready to chop up
Chickpea and Kale Soup
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Chickpea and Greens Soup

A hearty soup that can easily be customized, or be made vegetarian, and is ready in less than an hour.

Course Soup
Cuisine American
Keyword bean soup, hearty soup, kale and chickpea soup, soup with kale, vegetarian soup
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 2 slices bacon or pancetta thick sliced or slab, diced
  • 1 large carrot diced
  • 2 stalk celery diced
  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 1 tsp dry oregano
  • ¼ tsp smoked chili powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Pepper
  • 3 large garlic cloves
  • 2 cans chickpeas drained and rinsed
  • 2 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 cups Greens chopped – kale, broccoli rabe, spinach, collards

Instructions

  1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat.
  2. Add bacon and cook until crispy.
  3. Add carrots, celery, onion, oregano and slat. Stir, cooking, until softened, 10-12 minutes. Brown lightly.
  4. Add garlic & chickpeas and stir, then pour in chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, and cook 10 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile, trim and cut up the greens. Chop coarsely and add as much as desired to the soup. Add enough water to make sure everything is submerged. Study greens will take longer to cook than spinach. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
  6. Garnish with a bit of shaved Parmesan or a drizzle with olive oil.

What’s your favorite soup?