Eat for Eight Bucks: Chickpea Soup and Carrot Salad
[Photograph: Robin Bellinger]
Shopping List
2 cups dried chickpeas: $1.50
2 onions: $0.50
2 stalks celery: $0.20
1 loose carrot: $0.25
2 lemons: $1.50
Cilantro (pro-rated): $0.50
Baguette: $1.50
Bunch carrots: $2.19
Pantry items: Olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, ground cumin, dried chili pepper or chile flakes; optional ingredients, vegetable stock or bouillon powder, cumin seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds.
Total cost (for 6 portions): $8.14
I've gone fourteen cents over budget this week but am giving myself a pass, since this menu will reasonably feed not two, not four, but six people. A simple, filling spiced chickpea and lemon soup from Rose Bakery's Breakfast, Lunch, Tea is the centerpiece, and on the side you have some storebought bread and a simple salad of grated carrot dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, and garnished with pumpkin, cumin, and/or sesame seeds, if you like. (It's delicious with or without seeds).
Usually I just use water when a recipe calls for broth or water, but this time I used vegetable bouillon powder and thought it gave the soup a super-tasty kick in the pants. Although a bit of investigation revealed that the nutritional yeast extract in my bouillon powder might as well be MSG, as long as I stay headache-free I'll be going back to that little jar of umami.
Spiced Chickpea and Lemon Soup
-serves 6-
Ingredients
2 cups chickpeas, soaked (overnight or quick-soak method)
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 dried red chili pepper, crushed (or a big pinch of chili flakes)
About 6 cups vegetable stock (made with bouillon powder, if you wish) or water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 lemon wedges and chopped fresh cilantro to garnish (or a sprinkling of roasted cumin and sesame seeds)
Procedure
1. Drain the chickpeas and put them in a pot with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil and them simmer until soft—anywhere from 1 to 2 hours (or more).
2. Towards the end of the cooking time, heat the oil in your soup pot and cook the onions, celery, and carrot over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables soften and begin to turn golden. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, ground cumin, and crushed chili. Stir for a few minutes, then add the chickpeas and enough chickpea liquid and stock or water to cover the vegetables by about an inch and a half. Simmer for about 30 minutes.
3. Purée the soup. Add more stock or water if it is too thick. Stir in the lemon juice. Taste and season if necessary. Garnish and serve.
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5 Comments:
a wonderful trick i learned from the great edward espe brown is to use brewer's yeast in stock. you can do a seriously good and easy shortcut by mixing hot water with a squirt of bragg's amino's and a tablespoon of brewer's yeast - instant hot stock. another great migraine free trick is to boil a piece of kombu with the soup and then remove it before serving. all are great easy umami additions without msg.
this soup sounds great. i'm trying to do the bittman vegan before six diet and find myself falling off the wagon these days because i'm so bored with hummus, sunflower seed butter and seitan.
cybercita at 4:48PM on 10/27/09
I use the Redi-Base Low Sodium Vegetable stock base because I have sodium restrictions, and while a powdered stock, it has only 140mg of sodium per teaspoon (one cup of reconstituted stock). No MSG added. You can then add seasonings or umami as you see fit, but it tastes pretty good—it may contain some hydrolized vegetable protein, but no added MSG, so it's safe for me.
(Packaged vegetable stocks are usually north of 500mg of sodium per cup, and that's a lot of sodium I don't need.)
mdeatherage at 8:08PM on 10/27/09
If I substitute canned chickpeas, would I just start at step 2?
larley at 1:14AM on 10/28/09
Hi, just came across the site today - so hello from London. I really like the ethos of this article and feel it's important for people to recognise cheap, tasy and affordable food. I write a blog here on the subject:
http://thriftyfive.blogspot.com/
Keep up the good work! Will keep on reading. :-)
Thriftywarburs
thriftywarburs at 1:06PM on 10/28/09
Cybercita, I have been meaning to read Edward Espe Brown. Those sound like great tricks. I am always resolving to use seaweed more often and never manage to do it...this sounds like a good first step.
My bouillon had "nutritional yeast extract" in it, not MSG, but apparently it is the same sort of glutamate and has the same negative effects on some people. I did not check the salt content...Breakfast, Lunch, Tea recommends Marigold brand vegetable bouillon. I think you can find it on Amazon in the USA. It, too, appears to contain glutamate, in the form of hydrolyzed vegetable protein.
Larley, I think that's what you would do. I meant to add that I thought this would work well with canned chickpeas, too. Good luck!
Robin Bellinger at 12:11AM on 10/29/09