Serving size: 8
Cooking time: 40 min
Ingredients:
1 small onion – peeled and coarsely chopped
2-4 cloves garlic crushed
2 stalks celery coarsely diced
2tbsp red wine
2 tbsp olive oil
8 cups stock (I prefer chicken but veg will do)
1 tsp sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp dried basil (or 1 tsp fresh)
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
½ lb (250g) kale, cut into thin strips (no kale in Israel – sub: mangold leaves)
1 cup brown rice pasta
1 medium red pepper, roasted and cut into strips (optional)
Method:
Over medium heat, sauté the onion, garlic and celery in wine and olive
oil for 3 minutes.
Add stock, salt, pepper, basil and chickpeas. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes on medium-low.
Puree the soup with hand blender (optional) – gives it a nice, thick consistency. Leave some soup not blended leaving some of the chickpeas intact.
Return to the pot and bring the soup back to a boil. Add the kale and pasta* and simmer for 4 – 10 minutes, until pasta is tender (do not over cook – especially with rice pasta!).
Add red pepper strips and simmer another 2 minutes if desired.
Serve hot.
*If you find pasta is too mushy try cooking pasta on the side and then adding it to the hot soup when ready to serve.