SPANISH CHICKPEA AND CHORIZO SOUP
It’s winter and we need some comfort and warmth on our dinner tables. This week’s recipe is a bold and hearty Spanish soup full of flavor and that favorite of all Spanish sausages, chorizo. Chorizo has a distinct spicy and smokey flavor and is a favorite of both Spain and Portugal and can be found in many of Spain’s prolific taps bars. It can be eaten without further cooking or grilled, fried or baked and served by itself or along side various bean dishes (1)
Feel free to add your own mix of vegetables………Enjoy!
Ingredients
• olive oil
• 150 g iberico chorizo sausage , finely chopped
• 1 onion , peeled and finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic , peeled and finely chopped
• 2 sticks celery , finely chopped
• 500 g fresh spinach , washed and chopped
• 8 fresh tomatoes , deseeded and roughly chopped
• 410 g good-quality tinned cooked chickpeas , drained
• 1.3 litres organic chicken stock
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 55 g quality pata negra, Spanish ham or prosciutto , finely chopped
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 free-range eggs , hard-boiled
Method
Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a large pot and add the chorizo. Allow to heat up and cook for a couple of minutes until the fat comes out of the chorizo, then add your onion, garlic and celery. Turn the heat down and cook slowly for 15 minutes with a lid on and without colouring the onions. Now take the lid off – the smell and colour will be fantastic. Stir it around and get some colour happening now. Add your spinach, tomatoes, chickpeas and chicken stock. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for around 40 minutes.
At this point you can remove about a third of the mixture and purée it in a food processor. Pour it back into the pot, give it a good stir and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and stir in the pata negra or ham and 2 or 3 tablespoons of good Spanish extra virgin olive oil. Divide into bowls and grate some hard-boiled egg on top. The egg was a bit unexpected when I was given this in Barcelona, but it actually adds a lovely richness to it.
Recipe and image courtesy of www.jamieoliver.com
(1) wikipedia
