Golden Chickpea, Coconut and Chard Soup
A bowl of greens, gold and goodness to give you life, plus a bit of hotel and restaurant inspo
Hello lovely subscribers! It’s good to see you here, in this free version of the newsletter, and as always, thanks so much for reading. If you’ve somehow found yourself reading this without subscribing, that’s easily remedied, and if you fancy upgrading your subscription to support the writing and recipes I work so hard to share here, then you can do that for less than a pound a week with a yearly subscription, which will give you access too all my recipes and ramblings, plus some really very cool paid subscriber benefits like community chats and giveaways with brands I love. Maybe a lovely early Christmas present for your fine self? You deserve it. Legend.
Hullo my friends and welcome back, I really do hope this finds you well, it was so lovely to hear from paid subs over the weekend who have been busy cooking up the Crispy Slow Cooked Pork Belly and delighting friends and family. It seems it’s something of an autumn roast HIT, and please do keep the comments coming you guys, I just love to read them.
We’re doing a bit better over here thank you, and even managed to get away for our first ever night away from our daughter with a one night stay at the gorgeous Guesthouse 42 in Margate, which opened in summer on the site of the former Sands Hotel after a substantial, seriously stylish refurbishment, and whose incredible roof terrace I raved about here. Our room was a veritable cocoon of comfort, full of lovely inspiring details, and the long autumn sunshine that was streaming through the balcony doors when we arrived was really something special - as was the five hours uninterrupted sleep we managed thanks to no toddler wake ups - massive thank you grandparents!
It couldn’t have come at a better, or more needed time. Isn’t it mad how sometimes just getting out of your routine and caring for a little person for just 24 hours can feel like a week of rest? Especially when you’ve been poorly. As a side note, I highly recommend the Sunday roast at the hotel’s restaurant Pearly Cow. You know I take my roasts seriously, and this one was very memorable indeed - we had salt aged beef sirloin with all the trimmings, and it was one of the best restaurant roasts I’ve had in a long time. I find roasts in pub or restaurant settings so often lack the attention to detail needed to hit the heights of the home kitchen, but this one didn’t, my only qualm would be that the roast potatoes were a little on the large side. I like mine smaller and crispier, and I’ll be sharing my very best version with the ALOHP community in good time for Christmas, don’t you worry.
In other news, it’s white truffle season, and I’m all over it, loving seeing all the gorgeous dishes that are flooding restaurant menus on my Instagram feed. I love both black and white truffles, but the white ones have a more pungent, headily aromatic flavour that makes them best eaten fresh rather than preserved. Of course they come with a mighty hefty price tag, so the best way to eat them is find a restaurant that’s shaving them onto a special. I was generously treated to the truffle tagliatelle at Murano last week and it was one of the most perfect things I’ve eaten this year: rich, yolk-golden ribbons of fresh pasta, themselves finished in a slick of fresh truffle butter, brought to the table and then shaved liberally with the fresh white truffle from Umbria. I’ll be dining out on this memory for years to come…
Today though, I’m coming at your inbox with another juicy recipe, and this time I’m bringing gold. In the form of soup. Not another soup!!? You might well yawn into your screen. But you should know by now that I don’t bother with boring soups, of which there really seem to be a plethora out in the world already. And I’ve basically been making it my not-so-secret mission to help you fall in love with Really Good Soup all over again over the past few newsletters, sharing my Brothy Pot Roast Chicken with its side helping of the best chicken broth I know, and this outrageously delicious, umami-packed Miso French Onion Soup with Cheesy Crumpet Croutons.
Last week I teased this golden chickpea, coconut and chard soup, which is fragrant, layered, balanced and utterly enlivening, with a nice level of heat from the green chilli, and it’s most certainly a soup that can be pulled together midweek for a quick dinner when you don’t know what to make. It relies largely on store cupboard ingredients - aside from the chard, which is bringing the rainbow - but could be replaced with spinach, cavolo nero, any greens really - and it gets its lovely colour from a healthy dose of restorative turmeric. Sure, it’s healthy, because it’s full of chickpeas and greens and broth, but it’s also got body and richness from the coconut milk, and I hope you’ll make it tonight, and perk up your week with a warm bowl of goodness. Or better still, send this recipe to someone who can make it for you (or who you think will love it), it’s tops a 30 minute job.
The Recipe 🍲 Golden Chickpea, Coconut and Chard Soup
Serves 4
2 tbsps coconut oil 1 banana shallot or small red onion, finely diced 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, very finely chopped Handful of coriander, stems finely chopped, leaves chopped 1 green chilli, sliced 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp Sri Lankan curry powder or garam masala 400g can of chickpeas, plus their liquid (or I love these small jars by Bold Beans) 400g can of organic coconut milk 400ml chicken stock, veg stock or water 1 tsp caster sugar A few stems of rainbow chard, stalks chopped and leaves stripped and chopped 250g cooked rice (I used a pouch of wild and basmati rice) or cooked orzo Juice of 1 lime To garnish Chilli oil or peanut rayu, for drizzling A handful of crispy onions Coriander leaves
1. Heat the coconut oil over a medium in a heavy bottomed saucepan and scrape in the shallot, garlic, carrot, ginger, coriander stems and chilli, then season with a nice pinch of sea salt. Fry, stirring, for a few minutes or until softened and smelling lovely. Scatter over the turmeric and curry powder and stir to coat the pan gubbins, cooking it out for a couple of minutes before adding in the stock, coconut milk and chickpeas along with their liquid, and the sugar. Stir.
2. Bring to the boil, and then turn down to a simmer, simmering for ten minutes on a medium heat. After that time, add in the chard stalks and leaves and cook for another ten, until properly cooked through and softened, then add in the rice or orzo and warm that through for a good few minutes. By now the soup should be nicely reduced and slightly thickened. Add in the lime juice, stir and taste for seasoning, adjusting with a little more salt or pepper if needed. I love white pepper here.
3. Ladle into warm bowls and garnish with the crispy onions, coriander and chilli oil/rayu to taste.
It's starting to get hot here. The landscape goes from green to parched yellow. Yet the thought of a proper roast is now firmly in my head!
Made this soup today. Just excellent! Chard just might be my favorite Green.