Chickpea and Pasta Soup from Mark Bittman for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

When I want something very simple and good, I look to Mark Bittman with his easy recipe sketches and countless adaptations. Trying to adhere to my no-buy rule for cookbooks, I checked his Kitchen Matrix cookbook out of the library and immediately went for the Chickpea and Pasta Soup, healthy and good for work lunches. 

I did double my chickpeas and up the broth, as well as adding a half of a red bell pepper left in the veggie crisper, three cloves of garlic, minced, and smoked paprika and celery salt.  

Chickpea and Pasta Soup 
Slightly Adapted from Mark Bittman's Kitchen Matrix
(Serves 4-6)

Put 1 1/2 cups dried beans, 1 chopped medium onion, 2 chopped carrots, 2 chopped celery ribs, 2 bay leaves, 1 tablespoon hopped fresh rosemary leaves, 1 cup chopped tomatoes (canned are fine) and 6 cups vegetable broth into a large soup pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer until the beans are soft--at least an hour. When the chickpeas are almost tender, add 1/2 cup small pasta. Cook until the pasta and chickpeas are tender. Remove bay leaves, season with salt and black pepper and serve, topped with a drizzle of olive oil and few chopped rosemary leaves.

Notes/Results: Just a good, simple soup--full of veggies, pasta and beans. There's not much more you ask for on a cool (OK, cold for Hawaii) windy weekend. I liked the changes I made to pump the flavor up a bit. I kept it vegan, but some grated Parmesan would be delightful on top too. With olive oil-grilled bread to dip into the broth, this made for a delicious light meal. I would happily make it again. 

Linking up with I Heart Cooking Clubs where it is Potluck week--our chance to make any recipe from our IHCC chefs.

Let's look into the Souper Sundays kitchen and see who is here:

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor says, "I don't know about anyone else but I am continually clipping or copying new recipes I want to try. Unfortunately that leads to an overstuffed file folder with all sorts of recipes, just waiting to get on the kitchen agenda. To clean up my messy cookbook shelf/folders I decided I would pick one each week. Sometimes I thumb through them and wonder why I would even want to try it. Those get tossed. This week I thought I would try Giada's Corn Soup. This was good but I doubt I will keep the recipe. Maybe it was timing - we had just driven back from Quincy, after some shopping, and realized we were ravenous the closer we got to home."

Judee of Gluten Free A-Z Blog shared Beet and Walnut Salad with Pickled Onion and said, "I was first introduced to this interesting salad at a luncheon given by an amazing cook who lived her first 18 years in Cairo, Egypt. She brought many of her family recipes with her. This colorful salad is one of her recipes. It is made with cooked beets, marinated pickled onions, and raw walnuts. The marinated onions serve as the seasoning, although you could add a little touch of vinegar to the beets if desired. The unique combination makes a flavorful salad that is high in fiber and vitamins, minerals, and protective antioxidants."

 Thank you to Tina and Judee for joining me this week! 
 
About Souper Sundays:

Souper Sundays (going since 2008) now has a format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches at 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 your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

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 to it on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a happy, healthy week!