Thursday, 9 June 2011

Rocket and Roses Baby Jersey New Potato, Chickpea & Chilli Soup

Kitchen Play List:  Maroon 5 ~ Hand All Over Album

It's a rarity to find myself not having to take anyone else's personal taste into consideration when creating a soup. My Love doesn't need lunch all week because of traveling or lunch meetings and I have no one coming for lunch...so today I can please myself! 'Marvelous', to quote my pal F. lol. 

It's June but outside my workroom windows the scene is quite depressing. The sky is dark and overcast and even the trees look sad. And if I'm not wrong we seem to be having the start of a bluster coming. I'm usually a person that loves the dark stormy weather...a good thunder or storm but even I am hoping that some sun will come cheer everything up. So when I start to put the ideas together for my soup it's no shock I go to comfort ingredients. 

I have 4 ripe and plump tomatoes (my mystery ingredient challenge items) and some baby Jersey new potatoes that need using up so I put them down on my counter....Oh here comes the downpour! lol....I pull a tin of chickpeas from my cupboard ( major comfort)....Oh there was a flash then! lol...My Love bought some beautiful red chillies home yesterday..I've been looking though my Chilli Book to try and find a name but couldn't work it out...anyway...they are vibrant red and about 6" long...so I snag one and put it with the other ingredients...then I turn to my onion box and pull out one large white onion and one large red. And I get to work....

If I do say so myself...I made an excellent soup today. I could eat this everyday and never tire of it. It has comfort, levels of flavour, long strings of onions, a good stock base and chickpeas...what more could this woman ever want? lol. And it looks good too...obviously this is just my opinion and if you try it...let me know your thoughts? 

Rocket and Roses Baby Jersey Potatoes, Chickpea & Chilli Soup...probably my most favourite soup? lol
Rocket and Roses Baby Jersey New Potatoes, Chickpea & Chilli Soup
(Original recipe from the Rocket and Roses Vegan Kitchen)     Serves 4.

1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 large white onion, halved and sliced
1 large red onion, halved and sliced
2 cloves garlic, grated
4 plump and ripe tomatoes, blitzed in a blender
1 litre of hot veggie stock
1 tbsp tomato paste
10 baby Jersey new potatoes, ends cut off, halves and then quartered. Skins left on. 
1 tsp dried thyme
black pepper to season
1 large red chilli, de-seeded and sliced. 

If you prefer your food 'Wow!' hot then adjust the chilli/seeds to your taste.

Heat the sunflower oil in a soup pan and then add the onions, saute for 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook stirring for another minute. 

Add the pureed tomatoes and stir well. Leave to cook for another 4 minutes. Then add in the stock and tomato paste. Stir well. Cook stirring for another minute to make sure it is well combined. 

Add in the chopped potatoes, chickpeas, thyme and season with black pepper. Bring the soup to a boil, covered, then stir in the chilli and reduce the heat to a simmer. 

Cook with the lid on for approx 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked. The onions will still have a little crunch but not an 'uncooked' crunch...as I hate that myself..lol. 

Serve and enjoy! 

~R~ 

NB: By the time I had finished typing this post...I had beautiful blue skies outside...to use the quote again...'Marvelous!'..lol. x