Tomato-Bulgur-Soup with Chickpeas

I am still alone at home so there are still more chickpeas to be used up in the fridge. And my guess is there is still more chickpea recipes to come.

In the meantime I made this yummy soup to fight the winter chill in Cape Town. I still had pita bread dough so I baked some more to accompany the soup and ate some hummus with it.

The following recipe is adapted from the recipe My Astoria Soup from Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's America.

Tomato-Bulgur-Soup with Chickpeas

Ingredients for 4 portions:

100g bulgur wheat
200g cooked chickpeas
1 red onion, sliced
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
olive oil
3 tablespoons zahtar
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
1 litre chicken stock
15 cherry tomatoes, halfed
grated rind and juice from 1/2 lemon
mint leaves, chopped
salt and black pepper
optional: plain yoghurt

Preparation:

1. Prepare the bulgur according to the instructions on the package. (Usually one just has to add boiling water and wait until it is soaked up)

2. Heat the olive oil in a decent sized pot and once hot fry the onion and the peppers in the oil for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, zahtar, cumin and smoked paprika. Fry for another minute and add the chopped tomatoes with the stock. Boil for ca. 15 minutes.

3. Use a stick blender to blend some of the chunks in the soup but not all of them. Add the bulgur, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, lemon rind and lemon juice and bring to almost boiling point again. I like to add a spoon of plain yoghurt to each portion.

4. Add the chopped mint, season with salt and pepper according to taste and serve hot.