birthday soup

I got this "deck" of soup recipe cards with a birthday barnes & noble gift cards. I love chickpeas. Thus, on my birthday, I made Chickpea soup.




YOU NEED
+2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
+1 coarsely chopped yellow onion
+3 cloves minced garlic
+8 small plum tomatoes (we used cans, the large size)
+1 bunch swiss chard
+1 can chickpeas
+6 cups water
+salt, pepper, basil, and other spices you like.

TO DO:

+In a heavy soup pot over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onion and saute, stirring frequently, until wilted but not browned (3-4 minutes). Add the garlic, stir briefly. Add the tomatoes, raise the heat to medium high and cook, stirring occasionally (or, if you are me, all the time). The tomatoes should start to break down to form a sauce in about 10 minutes. If you use canned tomatoes like me, it's already pretty saucey, but just let 'em stew for 10 minutes anywho.

+While the tomatoes are cooking, cut off and discard the bottom third of the chard stems. Cut the remaining stem portions crosswise into quater inch thick pieces. Now comes the fun part: stack several leaves, roll them up lengthwise, and then crosswise to form 1/4 inch wide ribbons.

+Add the chard (it will be a ton), the chickpeas, and water to the soup pot and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook uncovered, adjusting the heat as neccessary to maintain a simmer, until the vegetables are tender and the flavors have blended - this took about 40 minutes. The soup's going to be brothy, chunky, and kind of without much intense flavor at this point. Now's when you add all those good spices, toast some bread, and CHOW DOWN!