Spiced Chickpea and Tomato Soup

This is one of my favorite soups, and recipes in general. I took a little creative license with it, though. I used roasted canned tomatoes instead of regular, a fresh bell pepper instead of roasted ones, [filtered]in and cardamom instead of caraway seeds. It ends up being even more nourishing if you cut down the broth. It's great topped with avocado instead of sour cream, too. Great for vegans! The pureed chickpeas and saltiness of the soup give the illusion of Parmesan cheese in it.

I did the nutritional math ... Calculated total ingredients and divided by four (servings)...1 serving/1.5 cups = approx---protein 14 g, calories 168, carb 33 g, fat 2 g, fiber 8 g ...such delicious soup but high in Carbs for those of us counting our daily grams.

Made this the other night and it was a big hit! Swapped the suggested spices for curry powder and added some chicken after blending the soup. Will definitely make this again.

I live in Transilvania (Romania) and here we don't have chickpeas. But thanks to the very few benefits of newly opened hypermarkets it appeared in canned version. And I came across this site.I think there is a Martha Stewart show on some TV channel, but I didn't watch it. Shortly, I just cooked my first chickpeas soup (almost as in the recipe, as I don't have all ingredients here) and it is great. Thanks for the site and the recipes you are sharing with the world.

I like to reserve about a third of the chickpeas and stir them in after pureeing. And finely crumbled feta makes a nice alternative to sour cream.