‘Good food is wise medicine’
Having indulged over the holidays, soup is back on the menu for January to get some much-needed nutrient density in and give my digestive system a break.
The challenge to myself is to make some interesting soups with an Indian kick. Inspired by my grandma’s food with all the embedded wisdom of my heritage.
So, here is my first attempt.
For this recipe I used an entire pack of spinach as I wanted to get as many greens in as possible, and chickpeas for some extra protein and body in the texture of the soup. I used all the ingredients I would in a spinach and chickpea curry, just mixed them up a bit. The garam masala oil is the added touch which brings the fragrance to the table.
Mr B noted that the great thing about this is that you can eat it as a soup or with some rice as a curry. So a two for the price of one, so to speak!
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp. coconut oil
- ¾ cup diced onions
- 3 cloves, chopped garlic
- 2 tbsp. chopped ginger
- 1 can chickpeas or 1 cup of dried, rinsed soaked and cooked
- 500ml vegetable stock
- 200g spinach
- 1 tsp. garam masala
- Handful of coriander
Method
- Heat 2 tbsp. coconut oil and gently cook the onions until softened, c. 5 minutes
- Add the garlic and ginger, mix and cook for another 1 minutes being careful not to burn them
- Add the chickpeas and stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes to combine the flavors
- Add the spinach at the end of cooking and cook till soft, c. 2 minutes. You don’t want to cook for too long as you’ll lose the vibrancy of the nutrition and color
- Take off the heat and let cool for a little bit, c. 10 minutes
- Blend until smooth and pour into bowls
- In the meantime, heat the remaining tbsp. coconut oil over a low heat and add one tsp. Garam Masala. Cook for 30 seconds. Drizzle over the top of the soup and add coriander before serving
