Cream of Chickpea Soup

5 from 5 votes

This vegan cream of chickpea soup recipe combines savory vegetables and chickpeas blended to a puree and topped with crispy air-fried chickpeas. It all cooks in one pan for 20 minutes.

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Total Time30

Course: Soups

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegan

Servings: servings

Calories: 321kcal

Author: Kathy Carmichael

Ingredients

1 large white onion diced
2 large carrots diced
1 leek diced
1 clove garlic minced
15 ounces chickpeas drained
4 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons Hungarian paprika Sweet paprika

Air-Fried Chickpeas

1 recipe air-fried chickpeas

Instructions

In a soup pot, saute garlic, onions, and leeks until onions are translucent.
Add carrots and chickpeas; stir to combine.
Add the paprika.
Add 4 cups of vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
Cover and reduce heat to simmer.
Cook for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and blend in a high-speed blender
in batches until smooth.
Serve or wait until the ingredients cool, blend, and reheat.
Just be sure if you are blending the soup when it's hot, you are very careful.

Notes

Leeks are very dirty and generally have dirt in between their layers. Cut them and rinse them thoroughly to remove any excess debris.

When using a blender to puree soups, carefully vent the blender slowly before opening the blender with hot ingredients. This will prevent burns that often occur when blending hot ingredients in a blender.

Use a blender, such as Vitamix, designed to blend hot soup ingredients.

Try an immersion blender as a shortcut for removing the blender, preventing additional cleanup.

If using dry chickpeas instead of canned, soak them overnight, or minimally 6-8 hours. Like other beans, chickpeas benefit from soaking in water, especially if you plan to boil them on the stovetop.

However, if you plan to cook them in the slow cooker or instant pot, you do not need to soak them, although you can if you have the time.

Soaking dry beans or chickpeas with a teaspoon of baking soda helps them soften.

If cooking the chickpeas in an Instant Pot, drain and rinse the chickpeas well, then add to Instant Pot and cover with just enough water to submerge (1 cup soaked chickpeas to require ~2 – 2 ¼ cups water).

Pressure cook on high for 15 minutes or up to 17-18 minutes for super buttery, tender chickpeas. For chickpeas with some bite, try 13-14 minutes.

The benefit of cooking dried chickpeas in a slow cooker is there is no soaking step — everything is added to the slow cooker, and you turn it on and walk away. Pretty easy. Add 1 pound of dried chickpeas and 7 cups of water to a slow cooker. Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours.

Nutrition