chick pea soup, indian style

i've been reading bill buford's Heat and i'm loving it! buford goes to work for a famous new york chef and he picks up a bunch of cooking skills and funny stories along the way. and he inspires me to want to make a dish or two!

so i called my parents and got the recipe for chick pea soup, indian style. i love this soup... one of my mom's best. and the recipe is surprisingly easy. The output is pictured above.

Ingredients:

1. 1 can of chick peas, drained (19 oz can.. so in america they seem to have 15 oz cans so you need to improvise on the spices a bit)


2. 1/2 can diced tomatoes (28oz can.. ie 14oz of tomatoes)


3. 1/4 tsp red chili powder


4. 1/4 tsp black pepper


5. 2 tsp masala spice mix (i used mostly chana masala, which is the chick pea spice mix typically used to make curried chick peas.. it's a mix of a bunch of spices and can be bought at any indian spice store)


6. pinch of salt


7. 3 cubes veggie bouillon


8. 3 cups water


9. 1/4 cup chopped onion

Recipe:

1. In a large sauce pan boil the tomatoes, water and bouillon.
   When boiling, add the chickpeas, onions and spices.


2. simmer 30 minutes (until chick peas are done)


3. puree in a food processor/blender


4. serve and enjoy! (neha and grant suggested adding fresh coriander or some cream to the final soup to give it a more restauranty feel)

I doubled everything in this recipe and used 3 15oz cans of chickpeas and hence added a bit more to everything else. It turned out great.