Provencal Chickpea Soup (p. 141)

Raleigh is so cold right now. Normally this time of year it's in the mid 50s, but this past week it's been hovering around 35 (with an overnight low of 17 on Wednesday!) When I was a Yankee this might not have been so cold, but now I live in the South and I'm freezing. Anyway, wherever you are, its totally soup weather.

I set my chickpeas out to soak overnight so that I was ready to start soup-making once I got home from work yesterday. The drained chickpeas go in a stockpot with water and are brought to a boil. Then lower the heat and continue simmering until the chickpeas are losing their skins and are tender.

Put half of the chickpeas into a food processor to make a thick paste and stir this back into the rest of the chickpeas.

Leave on low heat, just to keep the soup warm.

Sauté onion in olive oil until soft and then add in chopped tomato, slivered orange zest, and crushed fennel seeds. Cook until jammy and stir in with the chickpeas.

Add salt and pepper and serve!

This was good but the soup I made yesterday was better, so I wasn't wowed by this one. Matt liked the flavors that the orange and fennel provided, and it (along with Christmas music and some chicken nuggets) definitely kept us warm on a cold night.

tomato -- $2.01

I had everything else left over from other recipes!

Total Cost of Provencal Chickpea Soup: $2.01

($.50 per serving)