Tuesday, February 9, 2010

chickpea noodle soup

So I woke up this morning with a sore throat and stuffy nose. I guess I have finally succumbed to the winter cold - but I really can't complain as it's mid-February and I haven't really been sick in several seasons. But I'm craving a hot, brothy, mildly-spicy soup. Wasn't sure what I wanted exactly, just that I'm pretty tired and bored of all the soups in my repertoire. So I went to the store and bought a ton of veg for 10$! which I am super excited about - parsnips, onions, leeks, savoy cabbage, sweet potatoes, a red chili, garlic + a can of tomatoes and 2 grapefruit. Did I mention that was all for 10$! (paid for with a xmas gift card, so FREE to me!)

The other day I cooked some chickpeas, with bay leaf, celery, garlic, parsley, and peppercorn, thinking that I would make some channa masala. Instead I made saag paneer (tofu instead of paneer) last night, and I decided to go with a spicy chickpea noodle soup tonight to satisfy my sore-throat related cravings. Was planning on making veg stock tonight anyway, but really....as a colleague said, it might not be worth the effort. I DO love making it. And try to do so once a week or two. But if you are making soup anyway, what's the point of boiling all that veg, throwing it out, then cooking more veg in that liquid for the soup? I understand it contributes to depth of flavour...and I'm certainly not over veg stock! But, perhaps, it's not always necessary. In any case, I had the liquid from the chickpeas, so I used that.

I really wish I had a working camera - I searched for an old one, but must have lost it in multiple moves over the past year. All my chopped up veg looked so pretty :) Anyway, I sauteed:

1 leek
1 medium onion
1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
1 large parsnip
~all chopped/diced into smallish pieces
5-6 garlic cloves (no such thing as too much, if you ask me)
in 1-2 tbsps canola oil (I really need to research the best oils health-wise. I usually use olive oil for everything, but I know it doesn't have the best smoking point. So I want to look into canola vs. sunflower vs. peanut etc)
then added:
2 cups water
1/2 minced red chili

2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (cooked in the aforementioned broth)
4 cups chickpea cooking liquid

and then 2 more cups water b/c it seemed pretty full on chickpeas.

boil, then simmer for awhile....

Add some chopped savoy cabbage ~2 cups
and some chopped parsley ~ 1 cup

simmer more....

haha this is usually how my recipes go, I suppose I should figure it out before posting! But I think each one is always a trial. So maybe this blog is more for me, like a continuation of my kitchen journal. It always takes a few times to get something *right* - or to your taste that is, perhaps there is no RIGHT.

So at the end, I added another 1-2 cups of water, and some chili flakes.
OH! and, importantly, if you want it to be noodle soup, some noodles:
1 big handful of thin egg noodles, about 10-20 minutes before the end of cooking.

It's pretty yummy! Just what I need right now :)
you could of course, add fresh pasta, barley, cooked rice, whatever you like or have on hand. I was just craving a basic noodle soup due to my cold - ironically enough, since it's so simple and I'm so sick of all my other soups.

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