Vegetables are an essential part of a healthy diet but also taste fantastic, especially when made into soup. This soup is very easy to make – even if you have never cooked.

Ingredients - Serves 4 Adults

• 400g / 14 oz. tin of chickpeas, 240g / 8½ oz. after draining
• 1 large white onion, roughly chopped
• 2 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 red chilli
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 850ml / 1½ pints of vegetable stock
• 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan
2. Roughly chop the onion and add it to the oil. Fry it gently for 5 minutes
3. The pan should be hot enough to let the onion soften but not so hot that the onion starts to go brown
4. Add the chopped red pepper and fry for 3 minutes
5. Then add the chopped / crushed clove of garlic and as much red chilli as you like. Leave out the seeds unless you like things very hot!
6. Fry for 2 minutes. Add the coriander, turmeric and the cumin and fry for 1 minute
7. Then drain the tin of chickpeas and add the chickpeas to the soup with the vegetable stock
8. Bring it all to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the vegetables are tender, but not cooked to mush
9. Liquidise the soup. You can use a hand held blender or a normal liquidiser
10. Squeeze the lime and add the juice to the soup

Serving Suggestions

Serve with pita bread that has been warmed in the toaster

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