Lemony Chickpea & Noodle Soup with Feta, Served with Homemade Hummus & Pita for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

I was craving a simple soup and chickpeas and wide egg noodles so I combined them for this Lemony Chickpea & Noodle Soup. A little feta on the top is always welcome and I doubled the beans and the starch by serving it with homemade hummus and warm pita bread. 

Hearty and satisfying for supper on a cool night, the lemon keeps it from feeling too heavy.

Lemony Chickpea & Noodle Soup with Feta
By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen
(Makes 8 Servings)

2 cups uncooked chickpeas
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp dried parsley
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
8 cups good vegetable stock, separated (I used a combo of no-chicken soup paste + homemade garlic broth)
6 oz wide egg noodles
juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
To Serve: feta cheese, chopped fresh parsley and hummus & pita bread, optional

The night before you make the soup: Rinse and sort the chickpeas, removing any foreign objects. Soak them overnight in plenty of cold water, draining and rinsing them well. 

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat and add the onion, celery, and carrots, cooking about 5-6 minutes until the onion turns translucent and the veggies start to soften. Add the garlic and dried herbs saute for another minute or two. Add the chickpeas and 6 cups of the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 90 minutes to 2 hours, stirring occasionally--until beans are tender to your liking. (My dried beans were from Whole Foods and despite soaking took about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to the texture I like.)

Add the additional broth and bring to a rolling boil. Add noodles and cook about 10 minutes, or to package instructions. Add lemon juice. Taste and add sea salt and black pepper to taste. 

Serve hot with feta cheese and chopped fresh parsley on top and with hummus and pita on the side if desired.

Notes/Results:  This soup is thick, creamy and is more stew-like than a brothy soup. Cooking the chickpeas longer and the noodles helped suck up the broth, so the extra two cups I added helped. You could also cook the chickpeas separately until almost cooked, then add them to the soup, or use cooked, canned chickpeas (quicker if you are in a hurry) but I like a thick texture, so it worked for me. The feta on soft softens and adds to the soup with its salty burst of flavor. If you want a vegan soup, just omit the feta and try some fried capers or chopped pepperoncini. Actually that sounds really good, I may have to fry up some capers for my leftovers. For the hummus. I just whipped up a batch of simple hummus. Here's a nice lemony hummus recipe. I was happy with my dinner and would gladly make this soup again. 

 

We have some great people and dishes awaiting in the Souper Sundays kitchen--let's have a look.

 
Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen shares Pomegranate Molasses, Bulgar, Chickpeas, Red Chard, and Seitan 'Lamb' Salad and said, "The pomegranate molasses gave that sweet twang. chickpea always give nuttiness, but so did the Bulgar. Its nice warm, but its also good at room temperature as a salad, but do keep the mock lamb sitting on top, so not to go too soggy from the red chard, which by the way is from the garden plot."

Amber of The Hungry Mountaineer is here with Gorgonzola Gnocchi Soup and said, "Normally I would never to think to make a delicious soup in July but on a rainy day as thunderstorms rock the house in Big Bear, a big steaming pot of gnocchi stew sounds truly amazing."

 
Tina of Squirrel Head Manor brings Creamy Vegetable Soup and said it "was inspired by necessity - the need for a hot lunch to carry to work. The ingredients were  selected from a nearly bare vegetable tray in the fridge. Creativity was required 😼 It’s simple.  You look in the fridge for orphan vegetables, quantities too meager to produce a good side dish at dinner. I had onions (I always have copious quantities of onions), three garlic cloves, mushrooms, two carrots, one yellow squash and a handful of green beans."

Mahalo to everyone who joined me at Souper Sundays this week! 

Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.)

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on the post you link up to be included.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (optional).

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a happy, healthy week!