Wednesday 7 April 2010

Recipe - Mince, Carrot, Tomato and Chickpea Soup


Here we go again. Too tired to be adventurous and too stubborn to buy a takeaway. This is the kind of dinner I cobble together when I'm in that frame of mind.

Yet again I used up various bits and pieces that I already had in the cupboards or the fridge to make up something that was edible and filling. As always, freestyle it to your liking. For example - I'm sure the chickpeas can be exchanged for some other kind of pulses, or why not some leftover boiled rice?

If you have some leftover fresh herbs hiding in the fridge, chopping up some parsley and stirring it in just before serving would be a great finishing touch. I added a tbsp of tomato puree and some hot sauce but that is optional if you don't want the extra flavour and kick added by those.

This might not look like the most exciting dinner of the season but it is tasty and fills you up well. Add to that the fact that it is quick to cook and I could not have asked for a better dinner last night.

The final touch, if I had remembered to get some, would have been some nice crusty bread to dip in the soup.

No use to cry over forgotten bread though, here's the recipe...


Ingredients (makes 4 or so servings)
Vegetable oil
400g beef mince
1 onion - peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves - peeled and sliced very thinly
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 carrot - peeled and coarsely grated
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
400 ml water
Hot sauce (optional)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 410g tin of chickpeas in water - drained and rinsed
Salt
Pepper

Method
Heat the oil in a large pan on a medium heat. Add the mince, onion, garlic, ground cumin and smoked paprika. Cook whilst stirring now and then until the mince is well browned.

Add the carrot, tomatoes, water tomato puree and hot sauce. Give it all a couple of good stirs and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, add the chickpeas and lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Season to taste.

Serve with crusty bread.

Enjoy!

21 comments:

  1. Wonderful blog, i recently come to your blog through Google excellent knowledge keep on posting you guys.

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  2. I'm saving this recipe, there are plenty of nights these days that I just don't have the energy to cook something too complicated. But this sounds delicious and satisfying.

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    鄔瑪·舒曼
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  4. looks yummy ,luv to cook now,will try these recipes

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  5. I am a soup maker of much the same way. I scavenge through the refrigerated vegetable drawer, the unrefrigerated root vegetables, the spice rack, and my beans/barley/rice/pasta collection to see what concoction I can create. Sometimes there is coconut milk or cream milk, but most often it is a combination of cumin, paprika, hot peppers, basil, and garlic in some sort of modified peasant soup/minestrone/chili. Yum.

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  6. Just popped in to invite you to come for a visit to my new blog Den Rockande Kocken (The Rocking Chef)... *WS* Have a great day...

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  7. I make a lot of soups this way. Toss a bunch of left over this and that into the crock pot, along with a base of chicken broth or some other liquid (from cooking vegetables or whatever) and then season it freestyle and eh voila, le soupe!

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  8. Just finished looking through your blog; it's great! This recipe, especially, looks amazing.

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  9. this recipe is really great, the carrots and tomatoes are good vegetables with lots of good vitamins and minerals but what many people dont know is that chickpeas are very good for health, they are called horse power food, i made this with small pieces of meat and it was too good.. just lively

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  10. Terrific recipe, would highly recommend it!

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  11. Just stumbled across your blog looking for recipes for Pastel de Papas, and linked to your recipe in my blog post today. Thanks!

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  12. Great looking dish! Make me hungry!

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  13. Happy new year to you and each of your readers!

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  14. Oj, vad förvånad jag blev över att jag lyckats missa detta inlägg; skyller på decemberstressen.
    Det här är helt klart mat i min smak.
    Hoppas att allt är bra med dig - Gott Nytt År!

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  15. Hello dear, you have disappeared from twitter and blogging, hope all is OK with you. Happy New Year!

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  16. Great... by the way, I've prepared a new recipe and produced the video. Would appreciate if like minded people watch this and leave feedback...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckzAVtWzhpo

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  17. Sounds great! I'd add a small amount of chilli sauce just to warm it up.

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  18. Genius! It takes more than just a sleight of hand to put together whatever is there in the kitchen or fridge and make a meal out of it. I've saved a couple of your soup recipes, as I find them very easy to prepare and nutritious. Thank you.

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Please leave a comment. Positive or negative - all comments are welcome and useful. I do enjoy hearing what you think of my posts, what is good and what needs improving so please post away.

// Mike