Curried Chickpea Soup

This soup is the absolute coziest.  What exactly does it mean for a soup to be cozy?  Well, let me pontificate for a moment.

A cozy soup is perfect for a rainy day.  It is eaten curled up on your couch with a napkin tucked into your side for unintentional dribbles.  It pairs well with romantic comedies and good books.  It makes you relaxed and deliciously comfortable with one spoonful.

Cozy soups.  They're a wonder.

I made this last week during the first rash of rainy days in Chicago.  I wanted to use up some of my dried beans, and this seemed like the perfect the way.  I also had some swiss chard that I had no idea what to do with.

I used dried chickpeas so it took a bit longer to come together.  If you used canned beans, though, this would come together fairly quickly.  Don't skip out on the curry powder and garam masala if you're unfamiliar with them.  It gives the soup a nice heat that isn't too overpowering.

Curried Chickpea Soup

1/2 pound chickpeas
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup swiss chard, de-stemmed and shredded
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp cumin


Directions:


Cover the dried beans with water and soak overnight.  Drain the beans and cover with clean water.  I used about 4-6 cups.  Add the bouillon cubes.  Bring the beans to a boil and cook until the beans are tender, but not mushy.  This takes about 1 hour.  


Next, add the spices and swiss chard.  Cook for 10-15 minutes.  The liquid reduces quite a bit, so I would recommend eating half of this as soup and the other half served over quinoa or rice.  It had it both ways and it was equally delicious.