Chickpea, tomato and bread soup from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi.

The first time I made this soup I was vegetarian for the second time around.

Huh?

Let me explain...I've gone through fazes. It's often when I feel I've needed a little control in my life and it's the one thing you can control, what you eat. The first time I was in high school and one day I just declared I was a vegetarian and so many people told me I wasn't  that I had to prove them wrong. So from that day onwards I didn't eat meat... I ate the occasional can of tuna so guess i was never really vegetarian but that was it. It lasted about 6 months and drove my mother insane having to cater for a fussy 16 year old.

The second time was only 2 years ago and that lasted about 8 months. It was Tristan's worst nightmare... but this time I was sneakier than the last when I told people, as I do most of the cooking I just started not cooking meat then announced one day that I hadn't eaten meat in 2 week and I was vegetarian again (still ate fish so again not really vego). 

Veggies are still probably one of my favourite food groups, there is so many things you can do with them and just so many of them too, but the thing I did miss was real bolognese sauce. I also dreamt about osso bucco a couple of times. But what turned me back to eating meat I am ashamed to say was when I came down with the flu and Tristan came home with chicken burgers... chicken burgers of all thing!!! ... my barriers were down and I was vulnerable. 

This Chickpea, tomato and bread soup was a recipe I made when all I had was vegetables in the fridge and I was lost with what to make. Having only one vegetarian cookbook at the time 'Plenty' by Yotom Ottolenghi, I used this book like my vegetarian bible. The other night when I looked into the fridge and saw endless vegetables and my basil plant looking a little sorry for itself I knew exactly what to make to warm us up. 

Firstly this is not a frumpy vegetable soup. I absolutely love fennel and can't help but pick one up nearly every time I see them in the supermarket, the fennel flavour in this is what makes this soup amazing and not the frumpy vegetable soup you might think this looks like. The herbs in this soup weren't as easy to find as the vegetables sitting in my fridge were so I used some dried and some fresh (I have listed what I used in the recipe below). A spoonful of home-made pesto on top gives it a hit of freshness, a last taste of summer but the bread in the soup is what warms your belly. I've always thought bread in soup would be unpleasant, a texture thing really but the bread in the soup gives it body and goes well against the textures of the vegetables and chickpeas.  

If you also make the pesto recipe it's a good item to have in the fridge to hold onto a little bit of summer throughout these cooler months as we all long for decent tomatoes to come back in season. I hope I haven't offended any vegetarians out there with this post but that I have given my readers, vegetarians and meat eaters, another dinner idea this week when they look aimlessly in their fridge hoping that it will miraculously make the dinner and also do the dishes for them. 

Chickpea, tomato and bread soup from Plenty. 

Recipe by Yotom Ottolenghi (adapted ever so slightly) 

1 large onion, sliced 
1 medium fennel bulb, sliced 
3 tablespoons olive oil 
1 large carrot, peeled, and sliced 
3 celery sticks, sliced 
1 tablespoon tomato purée 
250ml white wine 
400g can chopped tomatoes 
1 tablespoon chopped oregano (I used 1/2 teaspoon dried and 1 teaspoon fresh) 
2 tablespoon chopped parsley  
1 tablespoon thyme leaves (I used 1/2 teaspoon of dried) 
2 bay leaves (dried) 
2 teaspoons sugar 
1 litre vegetable stock 
160g stale sourdough bread 
400g can chickpeas 
4 tbsp basil pesto (bought or freshly made; see recipe below) 
handful of shredded basil leaves to serve (optional) 
salt and black pepper 

 - Preheat the oven to 180C or 400 F. Place the olive oil, onion and fennel in a large saucepan and cook on a medium heat for about 4 minutes. Add the carrot and celery and continue cooking until the vegetables soften. 

 - Stir in the tomato purée and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine and let it bubble making sure you scrap all the goodness of the bottom of the pan. 

 - Next, add the canned tomatoes with their juices, the herbs, sugar, vegetable stock and some salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, cover and leave to simmer gently for about 30 minutes. 

 - Meanwhile, place you bread in the oven to dry out for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool then break up into chunks. 

 - If you are making your own pesto start this now so it's ready to go; see recipe below.

 - About 5 minutes before you want to serve the soup, add the chickpeas to the soup and leave to simmer. Next add the toasted bread, stir well and cook for about 2 more minutes. 

 - Taste the soup and season salt and a generous amount of freshly cracked pepper 

 - Ladle the hot soup into bowls and add a spoonful of pesto in the centre and finish with a generous amount of freshly shredded basil (I didn't have any or I would have) and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. (Note: this soup freezes really well) 

Pesto  - when you have no pine nuts in the cupboard. 

Recipe adapted from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi 

Makes quite a bit - good to keep in the fridge/freezer. 

30g fresh basil, washed and leaves picked 
20g fresh parsley, washed and leaves picked 
65g roasted almonds, chopped roughly 
60g parmesan, grated 
2 garlic cloves, crushed 
good pinch of salt and pepper 
200mL extra virgin olive oil 
1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar 

 - Place basil, parsley, almonds, parmesan, garlic, salt and pepper into a small food processor and blitz well until it forms a paste. 

- Next add the olive oil slowly (or in batched of three) and blitz until well combined then add the vinegar and give it one last blitz. Taste and season if you think it needs it. 

- If you want it thinner just add a little more olive oil. 

Note: This can be stored in the fridge for about 2 weeks if you keep it covered with olive oil or in the freezer for about 1-2 months. The garlic looses it's punchiness but it's still delicious.

Yotam Ottolenghi 's Multi-vegetable Paella from PLENTY.

I do try and sneak in a vegetarian dinner at least one night of the week. Sometimes it goes unnoticed and other times I get a remark along the lines of 'Where's the meat?!' or 'Whats all this green stuff on my plate?' or I find him simply grilling a bit of fish or chicken on the BBQ (with enough garlic to kill a vampire) and get the polite question if I would like some too. Most of the time when the name of the dish has vegetable or vegetarian in the name then it definitely gets a reaction, just like last nights dinner.

Multi-vegetable Paella from Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbook PLENTY. But this time it wasn't just him...throughout the entire meal we both kept imagining how good it would be with chicken and fish and calamari and prawns and mussels and baby clams and chorizo throughout it.

The Multi-vegetable Paella had a variety of vegetables in it but I couldn't help myself and did a little fridge empty in there. This dish would be great to do that with at the end of the week before the next grocery shop or have it as a store cupboard staple because there was a fair bit of frozen or jarred vegetables in it. And yet again this week, somehow I messed up the meal planning and there was no red capsicum in the fridge when I came to make this on Monday night but what I did have was left over jarred peppers in the fridge from Jamie's sausage fusilli I made the other weekend. YAY! I added some leftover baby spinach and a couple of carrots which are always floating around in the bottom of the fridge.

I actually own a paella pan and love any excuse to use it but after I had climbed on top of the kitchen cupboards and retrieved it and placed it on the stove it was total over-kill. It covered 90% of the cook top. I could almost have all four burners on at once and use it, so for two people it went straight back up to the top of the cupboard again and out came my trusty crock pot. You must think that I don't own any other pots but I do own the standard ikea set which does the job perfectly as well, I just have a soft spot for 'Bessey' my red crock pot.

PS. Happy Birthday big sister if you're reading this :)

Multi-vegetable Paella by Yotam Ottolenghi from PLENTY.
(serves 2 generously)

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 spanish onion, finely chopped
1 small capsicum, cut into strips (I used 3 jarred peppers instead)
1/2 fennel bulb, cut unto strips
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
150g aborio rice (or Calasparra)
100mL good-quality medium sherry
1 tsp saffron threads (if your a millionaire!... I used a pinch)
450mL boiling vegetable stock
200g shelled broad beans (I used frozen)
12 mini plum tomatoes, halved (I used a handful of cherry tomatoes)
5 small grilled artichokes in oil from a jar, quartered
15 pitted kalamata olives, halved
2 tbsp chopped parsley
4 lemon wedges
salt

- Fry onion for 5 minutes in olive oil over a medium heat. Add the capsicums (if using jarred like I did, save them till the end) and fennel and fry for a further few minutes until soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook for a couple more minutes.

- Add bay leaves and spices stirring well. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes. De-glaze the pan with sherry and then add the saffron along with the stock. Season and then simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

- Make sure you remove the skin from the broad beans. To do this pour boiling water onto the beans and allow to sit for a couple of minutes then drain and allow to cool. Squeeze the broad beans from their skin, discarding the skin.

- When the rice is cook add the skinned broad beans, tomatoes, artichokes and olives (and jarred peppers if using them). Place the lid on and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

- Take the lid off, squeeze over the lemon juice and sprinkle the parsley and serve.