Saturday, April 27, 2013

Last crockpot of beans? Not zany.

Are you so tired of trying to find interesting bean soups? This one will not capture your imagination at all. But it is the easiest soup you'll ever make. You don't even have to finish chopping the onion. And it will knock you over, without a single wacky spice pairing.

When Matt was in Greece, he ate an amazing bowl of chickpeas in some old couple's basement "restaurant," where they only sold this soup. Here is how the old woman said that you make it.

Chickpeas (some)
Water (to cover)
Onion (an)
Olive oil (lots, good)
Black pepper and salt (to taste)

Chop off the ends of the onion and peel it. Do not chop it any further. The old yia-yia said that the magic is in the whole onion. Put the chickpeas and the almost whole onion in a pot. Cover them with the water. Add some salt. Simmer at a non-lively medium heat until the chickpeas are tender and the middle parts are coming out of the onion in a fascinating yet slightly horrifying way. The olive oil and pepper go in at the end.

It is so simple and so tasty. You can't eff it up unless you leave it on the stove too long (but scrape it out of the ruined pan, and the savor of burnt chickpeas isn't too bad for the broth. Neither are the tears.) We haven't had it yet this Lent, but we'll make a crockpot full of it tonight for church tomorrow.

You might be tempted to add kale, or parsley, or basil, or something. Well, that would probably be good, but Don't. Have a salad with it and make that the crazy thing that showcases your creativity that you got from Trader Joe's (making fun of myself here, not anybody else!) Or have bread with a stimulating dip. But the soup abides. Really, olive oil abides.

That's all I have for you today.



4 comments:

  1. What about lemon? I would add lemon. WITH LEMON.

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  2. lol! I thought about adding lemon this weekend, in fact I even had the lemon in my hand.

    But I thought that after I had made such a stink about it I couldn't do it, at least not in a pot of beans for church people who read my blog!

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  3. This is very interesting to me, because I would think that if you put the salt in right at the beginning, it will keep the beans from getting soft. I thought you had to wait a while to add salt....but I will definitely try this, because it comes with such endorsements! (just not this week)

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  4. Hm, we do that for the taste. But you might be right...

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