Garbanzo Carrot Soup

In this creamy soup, carrots are pureed along with the beans to create a smooth and colorful dish. In addition to or in place of carrots, you might try red peppers and winter squash and leave out the cardamom. The sweet red pepper variation, created by Martha Morvan during improvisation, offers an exotic, almost neon quality to the dish.

You don't really have to crush the cardamom seeds; it's just that munching them whole shocks the palate. You can also pick a full-flavored bean as an alternative. Choose one that won't interfere with the color scheme, such as cannellini beans or red lentils. Some good oil alternatives are: ghee, olive oil or hazelnut oil.

As a vegetable alternative, my first choice would be a rich orange winter squash. Rutabagas, turnips, cauliflower, and parsnips are also possibilities.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups onions, coarsely cut
1 cup carrots, coarsely cut
Seeds from 3 cardamom pods, crushed
1 1/2 cup cooked garbanzo beans, drained
3 cups water or vegetable stock
1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Method

In a heavy-bottom2ed soup pot or pressure cooker, sauté the garlic, onions, and carrots in the sesame oil.

Add the cardamom seeds, water or stock, and sea salt.

Cook until the vegetables are soft.

Blend the cooked garbanzo beans together, in a food processor or blender, with the cooked vegetables until smooth.

Heat and adjust the seasonings before serving.

Serving Suggestions

This soup is best served hot, although it is tempting to serve it cold. Add some croutons for texture. This is a good first course for an elegant meal.

The above was excerpted with permission from, "Romancing The Bean: Essentials for Creating Vegetarian Bean Dishes" by Joanne Saltzman, published by H J Kramer, Inc., P. O. Box 1082, Tiburon, CA 94920.

Garbanzo & Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Method

Serving Suggestions

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