Chorizo & Chickpea Soup

A warming winter soup, that can be spiced up by using hot chorizo or use mild ones for less heat.  The chick peas give it a lovely texture as well as making it filling.  Its perfect served with focaccia bread. It is straight forward to make and can be made using everything bought from the shop but I've added a couple of notes below on how I spruce it up with things we make ourselves.

We use home made stock, which is pretty simple to make you just need some bones (I use pork or beef) put them in a large sauce pan.  Add a chopped onion 1/2 a chopped celery, 2 chopped carrots, a handful of fresh parsley and sage, season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil.  Let it then sit and simmer for 45 mins, strain the stock and chill until needed.

Of course we use homemade chorizo, you can use fresh or air dried and I prefer a spicy air dried chorizo.  If you would like to know how to make chorizo you can come and learn on our Pig in a Day workshop, along with other porky goodies.

In  tomato season I swap the passata for slow roasted homegrown tomatoes. Just sliced in half, popped in a try, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, add a handful of thyme, a couple of cloves of sliced garlic, season with salt and pepper. The roast at 160deg C for 4 hours.  You can do large batches, cool and freeze for later.

If you have a veggy garden and no savoy cabbage you can use a different cabbage, silverbeet or even spinach.

OK on with the soup.

Ingredients

• 1.5 lt stock
• 2 chorizo (I use a air dried spicy one)
• 1 onion
• 2 sticks of celery
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 jar of passata
• 2 cans of chick peas (drained)
• 1 savoy cabbage 
• handful of fresh parsley
• 1 tbs oil

Directions

1. Thinly slice the chorizo. In a pan heat heat the oil, fry the chorizo to add some colour and to get it flavour rich fats rendering into the pan.
2. Thinly dice the onion, celery and garlic, then add to the chorizo. Turn the heat down and gently cook to soften, it should take about 10 minutes.
3. Add in your stock. passata and chickpeas, stir to mix everything through.
4. Simmer for 40 mins.  It smells amazing.
5. Slice up your cabbage roughly and add.  Cook for a further couple of mins.
6. Add half the fresh parsley chopped and stir through
7. Serve, sprinkling a little fresh parsley over the top of each bowl.  You can add a couple of drops of lemon oil to each bowl for that extra lift if you like.

Enjoy!