Bright & Grounding Chickpea, Parsnip and Kale Soup
Ingredients
Instructions
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1Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Combine them with 8 cups of purified water, bay leaves and kombu, if using, in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook, partially covered for about 30 minutes, or until the chickpeas are completely cooked. Add salt at the end. Discard the bay leaves and kobmu, then strain, reserving the chickpea broth.
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2Warm the coconut oil in a medium soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, fennel, coriander, turmeric, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt, and sauté for 7 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 more minute, until fragrant.
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3Add the parsnips, 1 cup of the cooked chickpeas, more salt and black pepper, and 5 cups of the chickpea broth to the same pot. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook, partially covered, for about 15 minutes, or until the parsnips are completely cooked and soft throughout.
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4Puree all the contents of the pot in batches in an upright blender. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust if needed. Return the pureed mixture to the same pot.
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5Add the kale to the pot and stir it in. If the soup is too thick at this point, add a little more of the reserved chickpea broth to achieve the desired soup consistency. Bring the soup to a gentle boil once more, and simmer, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Add the remaining cooked chickpeas and stir to warm them through. Serve the soup warm, sprinkled with za'atar and any herbs/sprouts or nuts/seeds of choice.
This post was created in partnership with USA Pulses and Pulse Canada.
Here’s a simple, nourishing soup that will help ground you through any holiday craziness or, really, any kind of stress you might be experiencing. Pureed soups offer such an easy way to get lots of veggies into your diet, and the possibilities for pureed soup recipes are endless. Think of them as warm, savory smoothies, and you’ll see that almost anything goes. I love a smooth soup, but sometimes I crave a little more texture within that creamy format. Enter this Chickpea, Parsnip and Kale soup, which has it all in terms of texture: a smooth and silky base, with satisfying chunks of chickpeas and kale throughout.Root vegetables are the perfect thing to be eating right now, when our bodies require more high-quality fuel to keep warm. They gather all their energy underground, where they grow to become nutrient and calorie-dense. Roots are grounding in the most literal sense. Parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, celeriac, beets, rutabaga, and any other root veggies you can think of, will make for a great addition to your winter meals. This soup highlights parsnips, the roots that look like albino carrots and have the loveliest sweet and earthy flavor. They are pureed together with warming spices like turmeric and coriander, as well as home-cooked chickpeas, which make this soup even more hearty, and satisfying enough to be eaten as a light lunch. Whole chickpeas and ribboned kale are then warmed in the pureed mixture, to make for the perfect balance of creamy and chunky.
Have you tried adding half a cup of pulses, like the chickpeas in this soup (along with beans, lentils and dry peas) to your meals throughout the week yet? We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: they are the perfect, nutrient-dense and affordable building blocks for healthy, hearty and sustainable meals. Head here for more of our recipes using pulses, and be sure to check out Half Cup Habit.
- 1 cup dried chickpeas - soaked overnight in purified water with a splash of acv
- 2 bay leaves (optional)
- 2-inch piece of kombu seaweed (optional)
- sea salt
- 1 tablespoon neutral coconut oil
- 1 onion - chopped
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 3 garlic cloves - sliced
- 1 lb parsnips - peeled and roughly chopped
- black pepper - to taste
- 5 cups chickpea broth + more if needed (recipe below)
- 1 bunch kale - finely chopped
- za'atar, herbs/sprouts and nuts/seeds - for serving
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Combine them with 8 cups of purified water, bay leaves and kombu, if using, in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook, partially covered for about 30 minutes, or until the chickpeas are completely cooked. Add salt at the end. Discard the bay leaves and kobmu, then strain, reserving the chickpea broth.
- Warm the coconut oil in a medium soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, fennel, coriander, turmeric, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt, and sauté for 7 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 more minute, until fragrant.
- Add the parsnips, 1 cup of the cooked chickpeas, more salt and black pepper, and 5 cups of the chickpea broth to the same pot. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook, partially covered, for about 15 minutes, or until the parsnips are completely cooked and soft throughout.
- Puree all the contents of the pot in batches in an upright blender. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust if needed. Return the pureed mixture to the same pot.
- Add the kale to the pot and stir it in. If the soup is too thick at this point, add a little more of the reserved chickpea broth to achieve the desired soup consistency. Bring the soup to a gentle boil once more, and simmer, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Add the remaining cooked chickpeas and stir to warm them through. Serve the soup warm, sprinkled with za'atar and any herbs/sprouts or nuts/seeds of choice.
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