Roasted cauliflower and chickpea soup

I am going through a major chickpea phase at the moment. MAJOR.

Lately, I have spent a great deal of time playing with this delightful little legume also known as the garbanzo bean. 

Admittedly, I have never given it its due credit.  Chickpea's are packed with protein and are high in fiber. 

You can add them to all sorts of meals or simply have on their own as a snack. 

Over the past few weeks, I have roasted them, blended them, fried them, and well, eaten them fresh. What a treat!

The kitchen has been covered with hummus curries and all things chickpea so much so that I even started considering chickpeas as the holy grail of legumes. Thankfully, I'm an equal opportunist when it comes to pulses and legumes so there is a lot of love to go around.

I recently partnered up with Woolworths to share this incredible (and hearty) soup that was born out of the chaos of my kitchen. 

This soup is unashamedly the love child of a roasted cauliflower and (roasted) chickpea and it is nothing short of perfection.

At the risk of sounding like a tag line for a coffee creamer commercial from the 80's, It boasts roasted chickpeas both inside and on top of it. 

Say goodbye to the stock standard croutons of yesteryear and welcome the roasted chickpea of tomorrow! 

Not only does the chickpea have better health benefits; they are able to replace less than ideal snacks and accompanyments with just as much flavour.

You can eat them solo with some grated Parmesan on! (I recommend a 3 year aged Parmesan), spice up the mundane nut bowl in your life or you can include them in salads and soups! 

I feel like this blog post should come with a warning sign.

WARNING: Chickpeas are slightly addictive.

---

Serves 6, cook time: 1h 30m

Ingredients:

• 2 tins of chickpeas
• 2 cauliflower heads
• 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• ½ an onion, chopped
• 3 potatoes peeled and chopped.
• Olive Oil
• 1 liter vegetable stock
• ¼ cup of Parmesan
• Salt and pepper to taste

---

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius 

Rinse and dry your chickpeas. Keep the tins separate as you are going to roast them separately. 

Separate your cauliflower heads into florets. 

Put your cauliflower and 1 tin of chickpeas onto a roasting tray. Drizzle with Olive oil and toss. Make sure you don’t over do the oil. 

Sprinkle your cumin and paprika over and roast for 30 minutes. Tossing the tray at the 15 minutes mark. 

In a large pot over a medium heat add a tablespoon of olive oil, the garlic and onion and fry until soft. Add your potatoes and fry for a further 5-10 minutes stirring often. 

Once your cauliflower and chickpeas are roasted add them to your pot. 

Add your last tin of chickpeas to the roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 30 minutes, tossing them every 10 minutes or so. 

Add the vegetable stock to the pot and top up with boiling water.

Let simmer for 30 minutes. Blend the soup using an immersion blender.

Add your Parmesan and stir. 

Salt and pepper to taste

Remove the chickpeas from the oven. You can grate Parmesan over them and have them as a snack and serve the rest of them as a crunch to your soup. 

Serve soup hot topped with chickpeas, Parmesan and black pepper. 

-Melissa

*This blog post is sponsored by Woolworths all opinions are my own

wild mushroom soup

They say time you enjoy wasting, is not wasted time. I have to agree.

Winter is starting to come around for its yearly visit and I can't say I am much impressed. I truly could of done with another month of summer. I suppose the best I can do in light of my disgruntled view of winter is embrace in my cooking and all that comes with it.

I must admit no one is grumpy at the thought of a piping hot chocolate or soup in front of a fireplace, wrapped in a blanket and playing board games with a loved one.

If the thought of lazy days cuddled under a blanket and a good book appeal to you, then so will this recipe. Nothing as good as the earthiness of mushrooms coupled with the taste explosion that is truffle oil.

Take your time building the flavours of this wholesome soup. Have a glass of wine while staying warm in front of your stovetop and definitely above all else, share it with loved ones.

---

serves: 4

ingredients:

• 2 brown onions
• olive oil
• 3 tsp crushed garlic
• 5 twigs thyme
• 350g wild mushrooms (variety)
• 3 potatoes
• 1 sweet potato
• 2 vegetable stock concentrate sachets or roast chicken stock sachets
• boiling water to top up
• salt pepper
• 2 Tbsp truffle oil
• 250ml cream

---

instructions:

To start boil the kettle.

Dice your onions and put them in a pot with your olive oil over a medium heat.

Sweat your onions down and add your garlic. Make sure to stir continuously as you don't want it to burn and give a bitter taste in your soup

Wipe down our mushrooms and chop them into chunky large pieces. Don’t make them too small or else when you cook them they will shrink into nothing.

Add them to your onions and turn up the heat slightly. Keep stirring.

At this stage take your thyme off the twigs and add it to the pot. I enjoy fresh herbs so you can even add extra to taste-depending on what you love.

Peel and dice the potatoes. I dice them small, as I want them to cook into the soup and not remain chunky.

Add the potatoes to the pot.

Add the vegetable stock to the soup. If you want you can use roast chicken stock concentrate depending on if you are serving to vegetarians.

Add your boiling water until you fill the pot to the top. Bring to boil and leave to boil checking every 20 minutes. As it reduces top up again with more boiling water.

Never add cold water to something that is boiling. i repeat for about two hours letting all the flavours develop.

Once you have reached the two-hour mark and the pot is 3/4 full with the mushroom soup add 250ml of cream and your salt and pepper to taste.

Let simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Just before serving fold in the truffle oil. 2 Tbsp. is usually a great starting point but again, do this to your palette, as you taste your soup along the way.

Serve with croutons and while its hot.

-Melissa