Recipe: Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Soup

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/moroccan-spiced-chickpea-soup-recipe/index.html

Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Soup
Recipe by Dave Lieberman from Food Network.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
• 1 large onion, medium diced
• 6 to 8 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 heaping teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 (28oz-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
• 3 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
• 1 quart vegetable broth or reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon agave nectar
• Kosher salt & Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 (5-ounce) package pre-washed baby spinach

Directions
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until the onions begin to turn translucent; lower heat if browning starts to occur. Add spices and saute a minute or so. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, broth, and agave nectar. Season with a couple pinches of salt and 10 grinds fresh pepper. Stir well. Chickpeas should be just covered with liquid. If level is shy, add some water so the chickpeas are just covered.
Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to low and gently simmer for 45 minutes.
Remove soup from heat. Use a potato masher to mash up some of the chickpeas right in the pot. Stir in the spinach and let heat through until wilted, just a couple minutes.
Season again, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Serve soup, drizzled lightly with extra-virgin olive oil, if desired.

Changes I make:

Changes to original recipe: 1 tbsp olive oil instead of the 1/4 cup, agave nectar instead of sugar, 1/4 tsp cayenne instead of 1/8 and 28oz can of tomatoes instead of 14.5oz can. The agave nectar because its a clean sweetner, more cayenne bumps up the flavor - still very mild and more tomatoes gives more flavor and more liquid.

This is so yummy and the flavors are out of this world. I make this all the time. It's easy, clean and healthy.

Crockpot changes:

I put this in the crockpot. For the crockpot just cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil on the stove, then add the spices and transfer to the crockpot. Add all the rest of the ingredients except for the spinach. When you get ready to eat the soup, add the spinach and stir.

A really good OOPs!

I was making a bowl of oat bran this morning that I had planned on topping with Artisana's Virgin Organic Coconut Oil (another thanks to Heather -where I read about this product).

I made the most amazing breakfast this morning that was a total Oops!
I put the oat bran (1/3 cup) in my bowl and added water (1/3 cup - but it should have been 2/3 cup) in the microwave (yep I micro it - because I have to run out the door to work, so every second counts) and hit 3 minutes. Yesterday I had to end early because it almost bubbled out, but it didn't today. I was busy cooking and putting a soup in the crockpot and noticed it didn't come close to boiling over. I didn't think twice till I took it out of the microwave and it had a firm top on it. Upon further investigation I realized it looked like a cake. I took a bit and WOW - it tasted like a little spongy oat bran cake in a bowl. I topped it with 1 tbsp of the Artisana Raw Virgin Coconut oil and it made sort of a frosting.
All I can say is YUMMO! I'm so glad for this Oops and it will become a dessert and breakfast for me.

Breakfast and Dinner eat's are thanks to two other blogger's.

Breakfast:

Thanks to some great blog's I've been reading, I've been seeing some yummy pictures of blended oat bran's with varying toppings.

One blog in particular has really influenced me to not only make oat bran, but to try making my own nut butter. Heather makes the yummies breakfasts and snacks.

I started this morning with trying to make organic sunflower seed butter. I read on her blog that you have to leave the nuts or seeds in the processor for 7-8 minutes in order to get past the "powder" stage. I tried using the magic bullet and while it wasn't too bad, it wasn't the creamy smooth sunflower butter I was hoping for. I think the motor gets overheated too much on the magic bullet. I'll try again in my food processor in the small bowl. All in all it wasn't too bad. It was just past the powder stage and starting to get wet and smooth. It still tasted wonderful with the oat bran.

The oat bran itself was wonderful. I use this as a breading along with some other items for chicken nuggets. I've never had oat bran as an oatmeal type cereal before and it was sort of similiar to the Malt-O-Meal that I ate as a kid. I definately like the oat bran better than oatmeal, although I do like oatmeal too. I think I'm going to work on finishing some of the oatmeal and make the oat bran my fall too breakfast grain.

Lunch:

Lunch was a hummus egg salad sandwich on an Ezekiel sprouted grain tortilla (sorry no pictures).

Pre Dinner Shopping Snack:

Lara Bar -Coconut Cream Pie

Dinner:

Here's my dinner and I'll tell the story of who influenced it below.

Salad: organic romaine lettuce, organic shredded carrots, sliced organic strawberries, organic raw sunflower seeds, and organic feta cheese.

Dressing: 2 tbsp organic balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp organic olive oil, sea salt and pepper.

I must admit that I've been in food rut lately. Partly because we've been trying to use stuff in the house before going shopping, but also because it just got easy to eat simple quick foods that didn't require that much preparation. It's so hard to keep fresh fruits and vegetables in the house because it seems that it constantly goes to waste and since I try to eat only organic it gets so expensive.

This afternoon I made a comment on Maria's blog about a great post she had about making goals. She had taken a look at my blog and noticed that I really wasn't getting much fruit and veggies in. I'm so thankful she reminded me that I need to increase them.

I just happened to be going to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods after work, so the timing of her comment was really a God send. So after spending $160 at both stores combined, mostly on produce that was all organic (man did that add up fast - and I'm sure Bill is going to freak when he see's the amounts, lol). The good thing is, that I've got plenty of fruits and veggies. Bill thought I was nuts for the amount of fruit I have in the house. He says there is no way I can eat that much since it probably will last only a week. Note to self.......buy less and go back the second week.

After Dinner Snack: 1 organic Kiwi

Saturday's Eat's

I found these pictures when I downloaded my camera from breakfast and lunch on saturday. They actually say 6/5/09 on them.....but I was working Friday for lunch and had a quesadilla for dinner - so I'm not sure why the date is wrong.

6/6/09
Breakfast:

Ezekiel 3:9 Sprouted Grain Sesame Bread with organic peanut butter from Trader Joe's.




Lunch:

Tuna Patty with Sweet Potato Fries.




Tuna Patty

• 1 can tuna
• 1 small purple onion chopped
• 1 Ezekiel 3:9 slice bread ground in food processor or coffee grinder
• 1 organic whole organic egg
• juice of 1/2 organic lemon or 1 tbsp organic Santa Cruz lemon juice
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• Dried terragon to taste

Shape into patties and cook in 2 tsps of olive oil till brown on both sides.

Lunch/Dinner & Snacks

Lunch and Dinner:

Both lunch and dinner was an egg salad hummus sandwiches just like last night. Sometimes I can be downright boring when it comes to my food.



For dinner I only used one piece of Ezekiel 3:9 Food For Life Sesame bread and baked some sweet potato fries to go along with it.



I easily get into food ruts, but I hope this blog helps me become more rounded when it comes to food. I tend to eat the same food for a while and then move on. Most likely because it's sometimes easier to finish leftover's since my family doesn't eat a lot of the healthier things I like. When we make actual meals they will eat what I make and Bill has gotten better at making things that are clean, but sometimes they eat their processed junk and I will eat my healthier meals.


Evening Snack:

Green & Black's Organic 85% Chocolate Bar - I had 15g of this heavenly chocolate. I must say this chocolate is rich, smooth and creamy. For me, the darker more pure the chocolate the more I love it.

Ingredients
Organic Chocolate Liquor, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Fat-Reduced Cocoa Powder, Organic Raw Cane Sugar, Organic Vanilla Extract, Organic Whole Milk Powder *

I've been searching out the best organic chocolate with the least amount of ingredients and sugar. I read on someone's blog the other day that Lindt makes a 90% bar that only has 3 grams of sugar. I want to check that one out.

Organic Black & Blue Smoothie

Breakfast today was a Black & Blue Smoothie.

Organic Black & Blue Smoothie

• 227g organic plain nonfat or lowfat yogurt
• 50g frozen organic blackberries
• 90g frozen organic blueberries
• 1/2 frozen organic banana
• 12g organic walnuts

Blend all in blender or magic bullet. This was my first time adding blackberries and the blackberries add a slight bit more bitterness than just using blueberries alone. It was slightly crunchy because of the seeds from the blackberries. I bet a vitamix would completely pulverize the seeds. Very yummy though.

Egg Salad Sandwiches & Hummus

Organic Egg Salad Sandwich

• 2 slices Ezekiel 3:9 Bread (I like the sesame ezekiel 3:9 by Food for Life)
• 1 organic egg
• 60 grams of organic hummus (recipe below)
• squirt of organic spicy brown mustard to taste

Chop up egg, and mix with hummus and mustard. Toast bread and spread egg/hummus mixture on bread. Slice into two and enjoy.

Organic Hummus

• 1 can organic chickpeas
• 1/3 cup organic tahini paste
• 1 clove of organic garlic - optional
• dash of sea salt
• Juice of 2 organic lemons or 4 Tbsp of organic lemon juice (I use Santa Cruz Organic bottled lemon juice because it's easy to have on hand).
• Water

Blend all in a food processor until creamy smooth. Use spatula to push down once in a while and add a little water at a time until you get the right consistancy. You could change out the beans and also add all sorts of spices.

I always have this hummus in my fridge. It's so easy to make and so tasty. I also want to try my hand at making my own tahini. I get about 5 batches out of a store bought jar of tahini paste.