Print Recipe

Healthy Chickpea Noodle Soup

Course: Soup
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chickpea noodle soup
Servings: 6 people

Ingredients

Cooking chickpeas from dry (Makes about 3 cups cooked)

  • 1 cup dried chickpeas
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Chickpea noodle soup

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 ½ cups diced carrots
  • 1 ½ cups diced celery
  • 2 tablespoons chickpea flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt, to taste
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper, to taste
  • ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
  • 4-6 bay leaves
  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
  • ¼ cup tamari
  • 3 cups cooked chickpeas (2 - 15oz can chickpeas)
  • 8 cups liquid (chickpea cooking liquid, water, or vegetable stock)
  • ½ cup chopped parsley leaves
  • 4 cups chopped kale or spinach
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 8 ounces gluten free pasta (half of a 1lb bag of pasta)

Instructions

To cook the chickpeas

  • Rinse chickpeas to clean them. Mix chickpeas, 4 cups of water, and 1 teaspoon of salt in a pot that you're going to cook them in (make sure it’s large enough; chickpeas will expand about 2-3 times their size). Cover with lid and soak overnight at room temperature.
  • After soaking, bring chickpeas and soaking liquid to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes. Skim off any foam that arises to the top. Lower heat, and simmer with a lid for about 1 hour or until the chickpeas are cooked through and tender. Set aside.

To cook the soup

  • Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add carrots and celery, and sauté until some browning starts to happen around the vegetables.
  • Add chickpea flour and sauté until golden.
  • Add salt, black pepper. turmeric, cumin, fresh thyme leaves, bay leaves, and nutritional yeast. Sauté until aromatic. Add tamari and sauté for another 30 seconds or so. Adjust heat accordingly so that you don’t burn anything.
  • Add cooked chickpeas, half of the chopped parsley, and 8 cups of liquid. This liquid can consist of chickpea cooking liquid, chickpea liquid from the can, water, vegetable stock, or a combination of these. The total amount of whatever liquid you use should be around 8 cups. I used my chickpea cooking liquid and water. Bring to a boil. Skim off any foam on top. Reduce to a simmer and cover with lid. Simmer for about 30-45 minutes.
  • In the meanwhile, prepare the pasta. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook until slightly under al dente. If the package instructions say 7-10 minutes, aim for 5 minutes. The pasta will cook a bit more once mixed with the hot soup, so better to slightly undercook than overcook. Drain and rinse pasta under cold water. Set aside.
  • Once the soup is cooked and all the flavors have developed, turn off the heat, and add kale (or spinach), the remaining half of the parsley, and lemon juice. Stir well, and serve over cooked pasta noodles in a bowl.

Notes

  • I cook the pasta separately because the starch will make the soup broth too murky and starchy. 
  • I also cook the pasta separately so that the pasta doesn’t overcook while sitting in the soup.
  • Short varieties of pasta work best like fusilli. If you’re using a longer pasta, you can break them up into smaller pieces.
  • When storing, keep pasta in a ziploc bag separate from your soup. Reheat your soup in a pot, and once it’s heated through, add some pasta at the last minute to quickly warm them up. This way the pasta doesn't get mushy.