Chickpea Puree

I never would have thought to make this soup until I saw it done on Food Network. I changed a few ingredients around to make it my own, and it turned out divine. Here you go ...

1/2 onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, deseeded and diced
1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded and diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 tomato, diced
1/2 can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic paste (or about 3 cloves)
1 tsbp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 vegetable stock buillion cube 9or 1 cup vegetable stock)
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbsp chopped cilantro

1. First, I heated up some water in our handy little kettle. You will need to boil water to dissolve the buillion cube. (You could also just use about a cup of the ready to go vegetable stock. No need to boil that, though!)
2. While that's going, heat oil in pot. Sautee the onions. Then add in the garlic, red peppers and jalapeno peppers. Also, throw in the carrots and tomatoes. Sautee all of the veggies for a few minutes.
3. Next, add the chickpeas, salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, cumin and red chili powder and mix well.
4. Dissolve the buillion cube in the boiling water. Then, pour a cup of the vegetable stock into the soup and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to simmer and let cook for about 25 minutes.
6. Finally, puree the soup, using your blender or a handheld liquidizer. Bring pot back to heat for a few minutes before serving.

I served this chickpea puree with toasted pita chips. Real easy .. just cut up some pita bread into triangles. Lay them down in the toaster oven tray. Drizzle olive oil and season with salt, black pepper and Italian seasoning on top of the bread and toast on 300 degrees F for about 5 minutes. That's it! Here's another look .. I drizzled some red chili oil on top of the soup and it tasted like perfection!