Soup du Jour – Chickpea and Spinach – Cooking from the Pantry

Ah, the benefits of a well-stocked pantry. It’s been a week of chilly temperatures and nonstop rain here in New England. So, I decided that a pot of soup would hit the spot, but no way was I running to the store for an ingredient!

Check out the recipe and see what I pulled out of my pantry! A little this and a little of that, I even combined different types of stock. My “use it up” recipe turned out to be one of the best soups of the season. I hope are inspired!

6 servings

This post contains affiliate links.

Ingredients:

olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
3 celery stalks, diced
4 thin carrots, diced
salt and pepper, to taste
32 oz. stock (chicken or turkey)
16 oz. broth (chicken, turkey, beef or vegetable)
15 oz. can chickpeas
4 cups baby spinach
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. sage
1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
6 oz. small gluten free soup pasta

Preparation:

For me, going through the pantry includes the freezer. There I found the last 2 containers of homemade stock that I had made over the winter. The larger one is chicken stock, and the smaller one is turkey. Between the two I had about 32 oz. total. You can, of course buy a 32 oz. carton of stock (I won’t tell)!

From the refrigerator, I had carrots, celery and baby spinach. From my dry pantry, I had cartons of chicken and beef broth, canned chickpeas (we call them Ceci beans), gluten free pasta and every seasoning under the sun.

To get started, dice the onion, carrots and celery and slice the garlic cloves very thin. Heat a 5 qt. pot or Dutch oven over medium low with about a tablespoon of olive oil and add all the veggies. Season with salt and pepper, give it a good stir and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the stock (mine was still a bit frozen), broth (I used 8 oz. each chicken and beef broth) and seasonings. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to the pot. Continue simmering another 30 minutes. When finished, add all of the spinach.

Stir well, cover and turn off the heat. The residual heat will be enough to wilt the spinach.

Cook the pasta separately. I had a 6 oz. bag of gluten free cavatelli from Farabella. It was just the right amount for a pot of soup.

There it is- dinner ready and made completely from my pantry.

Notes ♪♫ If you like a thicker soup, you can partially puree the ingredients before adding the spinach. You can top it with grated cheese or gluten free crackers such as Schar Table Crackers.