This week’s recipe is a ‘soup’-er one – see what I did there! I’ve used chickpeas, one of my favourite recipes, to bring you a plant protein and fibre packed dish that is a great to make ahead. This recipe gives you 3 of your 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables per day too!

Recipe (Serves 4)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp dried coriander
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 red pepper, de-seeded and diced into 1 inch chunks
• 1 courgette, diced into coins and then coins quartered
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved

Method

1. Wash and chop the vegetables as described above and garlic and set aside for now.
2. Heat the oil in a medium sized pot on your cooking hob/stove, then add the onions and garlic, and cook for 3-4 minutes to sweat the onions a little.
3. Add the peppers, courgette and tomatoes and stir.
4. Add the spices and stir to combine them into the veggies.
5. Add the stock, chickpeas and chopped tomatoes, and mix everything up again.
6. Season, and bring to the boil.
7. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and simmer for 20 minutes.
8. After 20 minutes, blend using your food processor (take care with the heat!), a handheld blender, or as I did, your Nutribullet!
9. You can freeze portions of this soup too – just ensure you defrost before consuming.

Enjoy guys! Tag me if you try this one out – @theirishbalance on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook!

Ciara 🙂 x