Tomato and chickpea pasta soup

This nourishing, comforting soup uses many pantry ingredients, along with plenty of vegetables, and the pasta cooks in the pot along with everything else. Serve with garlic toasts for a fantastic, filling and easy family meal.

Tomato and chickpea pasta soup. Credit: Donal's Real Time Recipes

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1½ tbsp olive oil
• 1 carrot
• 2 sticks celery
• 1 onion
• 3 tsp tomato puree
• 1 tsp soft brown sugar
• 3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 veg stock cube
• 600-700 ml hot water
• 1 400g tin chickpeas
• 150 g dried orecchiette
• 2 large handfuls baby spinach
• 100 g parmesan cheese
• Basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to serve

Garlic sourdough toasts

• 4 slices sourdough
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled

Instructions

1. To start, finely chop the carrot, onion and celery. Heat the oil in a large casserole pot over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery and a pinch of salt and fry for 15 mins (6-8 mins if you’re short on time), or until softened.
2. Whilst the veg softens, drain chickpeas, open tins of tomatoes and roughly cut them with scissors.
3. Next, add the tomato puree, soft brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce to the pot. Stir and add the veg stock cube and 400-600ml boiling water from the kettle. Stir in the pasta and bring to the boil, cooking for about 10 minutes.
4. Whilst the soup simmers, drizzle the sourdough slices with a little olive oil. Get a grill ( griddle) pan onto a high heat. Add the bread to the hot pan and cook until toasted. Remove from the pan and rub with the garlic cloves and season with a little salt and another drizzle of olive oil.
5. Back to the soup: Season and add in the chickpeas and spinach, cover and simmer again.
6. Finally, blitz parmesan in mini blender (or use grated parmesan).
7. To serve, ladle the hot soup into bowls, season, drizzle over extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with the parmesan. Finish with some basil leaves and black pepper.

Note

This recipe is one that saw us through the early stages of parenthood. It was nourishing, it was comforting, and best of all, it uses pantry ingredients. But nowadays, it still sticks as one of our family favourites because there's plenty of hidden vegetables, and the kids don't even know it.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.