Meatless Monday with Mindy #20 Creamy Chickpea Soup

Welcome to Meatless Monday with Mindy!

This weekend was cooler than usual, but still very humid. We've had a LOT of rain this summer with spells of very hot temperatures which is unusual for Northeast Ohio.  I wanted something light to eat, but the cooler weather had me thinking soup.  I found a really good recipe for a smoothie that I adapted from a book I recently bought at Bed, Bath & Beyond called " The Smoothie Bible, The Second Addition" by Pat Crocker.   It hit the spot for light and soup at the same time.

What started out as a vegetable smoothie recipe ended up as an awesome light creamy soup perfect with croutons and/or chopped cashews for garnish accompanied by a side salad.  I hope you enjoy this quick and easy, yet very satisfying soup for a lunch or light dinner. 

Creamy Chickpea Soup

Serves 4

4 cups of vegetable broth

2 cups chopped potato

1 can ( 1 1/3 cup) cooked chickpeas

1/4 cup chopped onions

1 whole garlic clove, minced

1 spring of fresh parsley

1 cup non-dairy milk

Salt to taste ( or 1/4 tsp salt)

Directions: 

In a saucepan over high heat, bring broth and parsley sprig to a boil.     

Add potato, chickpeas, onion and garlic to broth and cook until potatoes are tender. Once the potatoes are tender and all those yummy flavors have fused together, remove the parsley sprig. 

With an immersion blender, blend the ingredients until smooth. (If not using an immersion blender, cool veggies and broth slightly and add to a food processor or blender in small batches until all is smooth).

Use your favorite milk or half and half. My choice in this recipe was a non-dairy milk, Silk brand unsweetened almond milk. 

With the blender or processor still running, add milk and blend just until milk is incorporated. You see this smooth liquid become slightly lighter in color.

Season with salt, garnish with croutons or chopped cashews and to make it look as special as you should feel, add a sprig of parsley on top for a little color. 

Serve hot (or cold) in a shallow bowl or an awesome teacup with a simple salad on the side.   Bon appetit! 

All photos taken by my sweetie. Staging by me. :)

 You can see more of what he loves to do at Photography Musings by Dave

I would love those of you who share meatless recipes to link up with me for Meatless Monday. Just click on the blue frog and add your link.

What did you eat for Meatless Monday???