Watercress Chickpea Soup

April already…time flies…. *sigh* To look at the bright side,  my overseas holiday is coming closer. *smile*

It has been quite dull and wet lately as the weather cools down. Getting into and out of bed to the chill certainly is the alarm bell telling us the season of colds and flue has arrived. I felt quite light-headed the other day and thought I was coming down with the flue. So,  instead of making lemon honey tea, which I usually do when I get a cold, this time I ate two whole raw lemon with half a dozen of crystallised ginger. Oh YEAH~ *I can see your forehead being knitted into a puzzled and then disgusted frown.* But I’ll tell you that what I had done was worthwhile, because I felt fine the next day and lucky my symptoms didn’t develop into a cold.

Although I had got through the first warning to my health, I thought it would be nice to revitalise my body going into cold and flue season. That is how this healthy tasty soup has made its appearance here.

<Watercress Chick pea Soup>

Initially I was going to put potatoes in to be on the safe side, but I didn’t have any potatoes at that time or at all times; I’m not a huge fan of them, then I saw a bag of cooked chickpeas in the freezer; as a way of trying not to use tinned products I started to cook a pot of dried chickpeas or beans and freeze them. It saves a lot of time and money, what’s the best is that it’s much fresher and healthier.

Before I got started, I searched the net to see if anyone had tried the combination of watercress and chick peas, and I was glad to find a recipe on a healthy food site, which had a mixture of three main ingredients: watercress, carrots, chickpeas.

I really liked the nuttiness and heartiness of the soup. I usually make soup quite thick, not too watery. I had the leftover cold straight out of the fridge for lunch the next day, and it also tasted good as cold soup, though, I’d eat it hot. It is certainly one of the nicest comfort soups that can be  enjoyed throughout the cold months.

<Watercress Chickpea Soup>

Ingredients

a bunch of watercress, washed&chopped, stalk and all
2 cups chickpeas
1 carrot, chopped
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 pint vegetable stock
olive oil
salt&pepper
Heat  olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic. Add the chopped carrot and cook for 5 mins.
Add the watercress and stir well until the watercress is mixed in and starting to wilt. Add the drained chick-peas, stock and cumin and simmer gently for 20 mins or until the carrot is cooked.

Blend the soup in a processor until smooth. Put it back into a pot and simmer further before serving.
Serve with thick Greek style yoghurt with mint. (I think mint complemented the soup flavour very well.)