Chick[pea] Noodle Soup
Do you want to build a snowman???? Great, me too! Let’s do that, and then come back inside and warm up with a nice bowl of chickpea noodle soup.
I am (happily) stuck inside today while mother nature dumps a good 9 inches of snow outside. My snow shoes are by the door, and ready to go for tomorrow morning. Yay! Snow day! As a child I would have preferred a snow day during the week so that school would be cancelled. I loved going to bed the night before a big storm hoping for a snow day. We would jump out of bed in the morning and watch the local news, just waiting for our school to be listed under the school closures for the day. It was the best! My brother and I even created a snow day dance, which we are still pretty convinced will make it snow enough to cancel school. Remember going outside to play in that fresh snow, building snow forts, and having snow ball fights? Then, when your hands and feet were completely frozen you came inside for a bowl of soup. This familiar and comforting soup will definitely bring you back to your childhood snow days. So feel free to frolic in the snow like a gleeful child today. This soup only takes about 15 minutes to put together, so you only need to “adult” for a short period of time at stove. I wouldn’t want to ruin your snow day fun ;).
You may notice that this soup is super chunky and loaded up with vegetables, chickpeas, and noodles. You can make a less chunky soup if you would like by simply adding less stuff (duh!). But, I personally make plant based soups chock full of ingredients because I tend to find them less hearty than their animal containing counterparts…just being honest. I think that plant based soups lose some of their heartiness because they have very little fat (which is a good thing, btw). Anyway, my point is that if you want a less chunky soup, scale back the amount of each ingredient to your (healthy) heart’s desire.
If you are not sure why you should be skipping the chicken and having chickpeas instead, check out this 3 minute video to learn more: Beans, Beans, They’re Good For Your Heart!
Alright, grab your soup pot and let’s get cooking!
Happy eating and best health!
Dr. G
Ingredients
- 6 cups low sodium vegetable broth
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 3 carrots, diced
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced into bite sized pieces
- 1 medium summer squash, sliced into bite sized pieces
- 5oz (more or less depending on your preference) of thin, short rice noodles, or any other noodle you like
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- fresh parsley, cilantro, or basil for serving *optional
- hemp seed hearts for serving *optional
Instructions
- Place a soup pot over medium/high heat and add the oil, carrots, onion, celery, and garlic.
- Allow these vegetables to start to sweat, stirring frequently (about 2 minutes)
- Add the dried herbs and bay leaf and stir again.
- Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
- Allow soup to boil for about 4-5 minutes, until the carrots are beginning to soften.
- Add the chickpeas, summer squash, and zucchini to the pot, and turn the heat down so that the soup is simmering. Simmer for 2-3 minutes to allow the squash to cook and the chickpeas to warm. If you are using a pasta other than rice noodles add that now as well.
- Turn off the heat and add the rice noodles, they will take about 1-2 minutes to soften.
- Serve hot, top with fresh herbs and hemp seed hearts.
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