Ages ago a friend had been telling me about a soup that she had bought for lunch one day that tasted amazing.  Apparently it was a tomato based soup containing both spinach and chickpeas.  Having harvested a large crop of spinach from the garden last week I decided to do my interpretation of the soup as I knew little else other than those three ingredients.

Earlier in the year we froze huge quantities of tomatoes that we had peeled and roughly chopped (having removed the tough core and any blemishes).  So, after raiding the freezer and de-thawing the tomatoes I was able to make the soup.   I found the spinach gave it a slightly earthy taste whereas the chickpeas added a slight bite and texture.   The Moroccan spice mix known as ras-el-hanout (a handy thing to have in your cupboard for flavouring couscous or lamb) gives the soup real warmth and honey stops it becoming too overpowering.

Moroccan spiced tomato, spinach and chickpea soup

Ingredients:

• 2 onions (diced)
• 2 garlic cloves (minced)
• 200g chickpeas (drained)
• 200g fresh spinach (washed and torn)
• 800g – 1kg chopped tomatoes
• 2tsp ras-el-hanout (spice mix)
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 2 heaped tbsp honey
• seasoning
• oil (for cooking with)

Steps:

1.  Fry off onions, garlic and ras-el-hanout in a little oil.

2.  Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, stock cube and half of the honey and cook for 10 minutes.

3.  Taste the soup and add the rest of the honey (as required) and season well.

4.  Add the spinach, cook for a further 5 minutes.

5.  Remove from the heat and semi-blend the soup using a handheld liquidiser.  Serve hot with a little French bread.