Hearty Chickpea and Vegetable Soup with Brown Rice

This hearty chickpea and vegetable soup with brown rice is full of flavour and comfort, perfect for cold nights.

It's January and after a few weeks of non-stop sweets and rich dishes my household felt the need for something lighter but still with the flavor and heartiness we crave in winter.

This hearty chickpea and vegetable soup is full of veggies and a hearty dose of brown rice. It has a ton of flavor from bright lemon zest, garlic, and fresh thyme.

It's a totally healthy plant-focused meal that won't leave you missing the meat or richness because it's so rich itself. If you do find yourself craving some extra protein, check out my hearty chicken and chickpea soup - super similar but with chicken!

The best part is if you can find precut vegetables like I used here, you can have this soup on the table in about 30 minutes.

Ingredients

I cheated a bit with this recipe and used two different precut vegetable mixes here.

One is a soup base that has leeks, carrots and parsley. You can either find a similar soup base if you have one in your local supermarket. If not then the recipe below has the exact quantities you'll need to replicate the soup shown here. If you want to go off road a bit, you can substitute any or all of the following:

• Onion
• Celery
• Carrot
• Leek
• Parsnip

The other precut vegetable mix I used is a roasting vegetable mix that has carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and peppers.

The recipe card below shows the quantities of vegetables based on the percentages in the mix but you don't have to be specific about the type of vegetables you use or the quantities.

Lots of vegetables would be great in this soup. For example you can try sugar snap peas, zucchini, kohlrabi, or even squash.

Canned chickpeas: I used canned chickpeas for this soup. You can also substitute other types of canned beans. If you want to use presoaked chickpeas, keep in mind they will need much longer to boil so they should be started well ahead of any cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower or broccoli which can give off an unpleasant sulfuric odor if they're boiled for too long.

Brown rice mix: I love adding whole grains to soups because they add a lot of heartiness and also texture and bite. A brown rice medley is even nicer because it adds so many different textures. You can also use brown rice and toss in a few spoons of wild rice if you have it on hand. Whatever grain you use just make sure it cooks within 25 minutes.

Lemon: The zest and juice of one lemon adds depth to the soup. Normally a lot of vegetables together are quite sweet. The lemon cuts that sweetness and enhances the

Fresh thyme: Fresh thyme has brighter flavor notes than dried. If you have it on hand, throw in a few sprigs whole. When the soup is done you the leaves will have fallen off and you can just remove the now bare twigs from the soup.

Garlic cloves: A few garlic cloves add so much flavor to the soup.

Low sodium vegetable bouillon: Bouillon is an easy way to add a lot of flavor. This is especially helpful when making a soup very quickly like this one is made. If you use a regular bouillon (not low sodium) be sure to taste and adjust the salt to your preference.

Seasoning: The thyme, garlic and lemon bring a lot of flavor along with the vegetables. You can of course add more if you like. Some cumin would be great for example since it plays so nicely with chickpeas.

Oil: The oil is to sauté the soup mix vegetables and bring a bit more flavor from caramelization before adding the water.

Equipment

I used a large 10 liter / 5 gallon stainless steel soup pot with a lid.

Instructions

Start by sautéing the soup base vegetables in oil. Sauté until they start to get more aromatic. This step develops different flavor compounds than would come out from boiling so you end up with more complex, nuanced and layered flavors.

After that preliminary step, you can just dump everything in the pot, pour in the water, cover and cook for 25-30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Maybe you want a bit more salt, more pepper, more garlic...or more of something else entirely. The soup is your canvas.

Serving Suggestion

Of course bread is great with soup. Bonus points if you have your own homemade bread to enjoy, but any nice crusty bread will do.

I love soup with hot pickled chili peppers. This is a traditional accompaniment in Romanian cuisine and you can see it in my Romanian rice meatball soup.

Related

Looking for more soups and stews? Try these:

Recipe