Roasted Zucchini and Chickpea Soup

This elegant and strikingly delicious soup is like nothing I've ever tasted before. It's laughably easy to make, and at a cost of just 99c a serving, it's literally hilariously cheap.

We knew as soon as we tasted this soup that it was going to be a heavy rotation recipe in our kitchen. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

******************************
Roasted Zucchini and Chickpea Soup
(Inspired by and modified from Bittersweet Blog)

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini, sliced thickly and quartered
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1 28 ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
4-5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and black pepper
5 cups stock or broth

Directions:
1) Spread the coarsely chopped onions, sliced/quartered zucchini, unpeeled garlic cloves and drained chickpeas onto two baking sheets (Note: for easier cleanup, you can cover the baking sheets with foil beforehand). Lightly drizzle everything with the olive oil, and then season with several dashes of salt and black pepper.

2) Place in a 400F oven for 35-40 minutes, until the vegetables are well-softened, browned in places, and beginning to blacken at the edges.


3) Let the veggies cool slightly, and then peel and mince the garlic cloves. While doing this, bring the 5 cups of stock or broth to a boil in a large stock pot. Add the minced garlic and the rest of the roasted vegetables to the pot, simmer for 5-10 minutes. Serve immediately, with optional bread or crackers.

Serves 4-5.
*****************************************
Recipe Notes:
1) The total time needed to make this soup is roughly one hour, but don't let that seemingly long time commitment scare you away. After all, 35-40 minutes of that hour is unoccupied "oven-time" that you can spend doing something else. The actual active time needed to make this delicious soup is more on the order of 20-30 minutes.

2) Modification ideas: This soup is eminently modifiable, and you could make use of almost any roastable vegetable. Some ideas: carrots, mushrooms, green bell peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower--and I'm sure there are many more possibilities that you can come up with yourself. Further, if you stick to in-season veggies, you'll save even more money on the cost of this recipe.

3) Meatify! While this soup is a vegan recipe as written (assuming you use veggie stock and not meat stock as your broth of course), there's no law that prevents you from adding meat. Roast turkey or perhaps pieces of skillet-browned sausage would definitely complement this soup. Another idea: add frozen (meat or cheese) tortellini to the soup.

4) Regarding the use of homemade broth or stock: I always encourage my readers to make their own vegetable stock or meat stock, but there will on occasion be instances when you just don't have a supply handy. In a pinch, then, a simple light broth made of 5 cups of water with 2 or maybe 3 bouillon cubes will function perfectly. I recommend avoiding store-bought stock or broth, especially if it contains excess salt or other loud or superfluous flavorings. This is supposed to be a mild, subtle soup, and it should not be overwhelmed by the taste of the broth.

5) It wouldn't be a Casual Kitchen recipe if I didn't spend a moment quantifying the laughable cheapness of this dish, would it?

Chickpeas $1.48
Onions 50c
Garlic 10c
Zucchini $1.75
Spices/Oil 5c
Bouillon cubes 8c (if used)

Total: $3.96, or a laughable 99c per serving.

Related Posts:
The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
Savory Moroccan Chickpeas
The Hummus Blogroll: 17 Easy to Make Hummus Recipes
Smoky Brazilian Black Bean Soup

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!