Easy Soup: Chickpea, Brown Rice and Parsely

I love Soup! Really, it's a meal in one. It's easy to make. It's cheap. And it's healthy and it's good. There are so many ways you can make soup with new ways being made all the time. They are starting to boil salads, sounds freaky but it works...more on that some other time. For now, I've been working on this soup that I found in a cookbook. I needed to make some changes for it to work. You don't really need stock for this but if you like veggie or chicken stock you can use that or use equal amounts water. And know this: with soup, everybody is different, some like it thicker some like it, uhhh 'soupy'. Whatever your penchant, soup is flexible. I really like this soup it is hearty and has great taste. As for parsely, it usually gets a bum rap as just a garnish, oh the horror. It's has several times the Vitamin C of citrus fruits and has very high sources of Vitamin A, chlorophyll, calcium, sodium, magnesium and iron. It strengthens the adrenal glands and optic and brain nerves. It is excellent for halitosis or chronic bad breath and poor digestion. Ihave friends that chomp on it while out just to clear up their breath. So eat up...

Oh and for the love of the chickpea, garbanzo bean or as Indian cuisine calls it the Bengal Gram! I prefer that name, sounds adventurous. It is excellent for the health of the heart, stomach and pancreas. It has more iron than most beans and is a source of good fats, so you anemics, eat hearty. Also, you can get them in black, red and brown varieties, but you are probably familiar with the white. So buy some Bengal Grams dried. All you need is a cup or two cups if you are making it for a lot of people. Or use a canned version, but the dried is better so you can control the salt and avoid preservatives, but do what you can. This recipe works for 4-5 small bowls of soup but it is very filling, young children will love it. Eat Good, Eat Well Folks! Love ya like a step-cousin!

Chickpea, Brown Rice, and Parsely Soup

Serves 4-5

1 cup dried chickpeas or 2 cups of pre-cooked can garbanzos

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 bunch parsely, 1 huge handful, chopped fine

1/2 small onion, chopped fine

4 cups vegetable stock, chicken stock or water

juice of half lime or lemon

Salt to taste (Herbamare is an excellent salt mix with leeks & onions inside also cheap, find it in your health food section)

1 cup short grain brown rice, pre-cooked

How to Pull It Together

1. Soak dried chickpeas 8 hours or overnight in water just to cover and spritz lemon or lime juice in the water. This gets the phytic acid out of the chickpeas and eliminates the gaseous effect on your system.

2. Pour off water and rinse chickpeas. Put in large saucepan with 3 times the amount of water. Salt generously water. Simmer for 35-45 minutes until chickpeas are soft but still have a little bite. Strain chickpeas, rinse and put aside.

3. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over low-to-medium heat. Add onions, stir. Add parsely, stir consistently for 2 minutes. Add chickpeas, toss to cover with onion/parsely mix. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Pour in stock or water. Let simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Puree some of the soup by putting a portion in a blender, blend, and then pour back in a pot or use a hand immersion blender. You want the leaves to be visible and you want some of the chickpeas to remain intact, but you want a creamy texture from pureeing some of them.

5. Add lemon/lime juice and salt to taste. Stir in the cooked brown rice. Serve in small bowls with some toasted fresh bread.

Note: In one version, I added chopped walnuts in step 3. Delicious. Also, this will thicken overnight. So if you put it in the fridge, and the next morning it looks like cake. Don't worry add a little water or stock and warm up. The flavors intensify overnight!