So, it’s cooking time: Spanish chickpea and chorizo soup is on the menu today! I really fancied a bit of sunshine in my kitchen on this grey dreary day. This super easy to make soup was guaranteed to make me and Simon happy both inside and out – and it sure did bring a smile to my face as I inhaled the aroma of Spanish smoked paprika during its cooking, and when I watched Simon enjoying it with me later in the evening. I think it brought memories of the beautiful sunshine to him too. It is so good to know that here in the Northern hemisphere we have spring to look forward to, February is nearly gone now with March patiently waiting on the doorstep…

I happened to have some slightly out of date chorizo sausage in my fridge, as well as halves of sweet yellow and green peppers left over from cooking beef fajitas last weekend, and some not-too-aromatic plum tomatoes I did not know what to do with (otherwise I’d use the tin of chopped tomatoes), so I thought it is a perfect excuse to knock up this tasty soup. I cooked something similar before so the idea of having this nice aromatic soup was really appealing. I have rummaged through the cupboard and the freezer and found a few more ingredients I thought would be good to use up – that’s the beauty of this soup, you can experiment and add various vegetables, and the proportions do not need to be exact – you can make it as thick as you like!

I’ve used a clove of garlic, two shallots, a carrot, 3 celery sticks, some frozen spinach, about a small cup of diced chorizo, 5 plum tomatoes, a can of chickpeas and Knorr chicken stock. Oh, and half of yellow and green sweet peppers I have found in the fridge after I took this picture

So I have finely chopped the garlic, shallots, carrot and celery sticks and cut tomatoes into medium sized chunks, and then started assembling the soup in my favourite casserole pan (or Dutch oven, if you prefer). Somehow this soup feels like a casserole – it is rich and thick.

This is the only time consuming part of making this gorgeous soup – dicing the vegetables

It’s lucky I have found these sweet pepper leftovers in the fridge – in they went to the pan as well

I then fried the chopped chorizo on the medium heat until it released the beautiful paprika-infused fat, then added the chopped garlic, shallots and a teaspoon of the sweet smoked paprika.

Cooking chorizo over a medium heat to bring out the fat

Pan is ready for the chopped garlic and shallot

Then I cooked the garlic along with shallots until they have softened slightly, after that the carrots, celery and pepper went in.

And then tomatoes, chickpeas, chicken stock and about 1/2 litre of boiling water were added to the pan along with the frozen spinach 🙂

I love Natco chickpeas, they are cooked to perfection in my opinion

Soup with all the ingredients – just waiting for frozen spinach to be added

After I have added the spinach I let the soup simmer for 10-15 minutes and then dished it up! I have served it with a dollop of soured cream, some freshly milled pepper, fresh parsley and some toasted sourdough bread we bought last Saturday from the Druid Street market.

Two bowls full of sunshine

I hope you enjoyed this little cooking adventure and, even better, have been inspired to cook a similar dish! Let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to help 🙂