Chickpea in the Style of Chicken Soup
The soup that helped me get through COVID
Last week, I was down with COVID for the first time. Dan got it first. In the day between his positive test and mine, I mainly was cooking so we’d have food if we both ended up sick. Which, of course, we did.
Our cases were definitely “mild” by COVID standards, but I felt worse and for longer than I would have guessed.
So many people have told me it was just the sniffles for one day or that if they hadn’t tested, they wouldn’t have known they had it. That wasn’t my experience—I had a fever, chills, headache, body aches, sore throat, congestion, and coughing. I’m still coughing!
But before my first symptom, I made the big batch of chickpea soup I’m sharing with you here. I also made these baked vegetables. Otherwise, we ate pasta with sauce from the freezer, tofu scrambles on repeat, and plenty of toast and bread.
I ate cold quinoa with soy milk, maple syrup, and almonds for breakfast. One day, I had virtually no appetite—unlike me. I made a smoothie.
I finally tested negative today, but I’m still not 100%. The newsletter is brief this week. Still, I wanted to update you and share this soup recipe. Use fresh dill instead of dried if you have it. Parsley would be fantastic. I was working with what I had on hand when I made this. Don’t skimp on the garlic—that’s where the healing is.
Instead of broth, I used nutritional yeast and water. To me, it has more of a chicken soup feeling than even the chicken-flavored vegetable stocks. Plus, I thought it was more nourishing than the alternatives.
I know if you’re living on the East Coast, where it’s 90+ degrees right now, it seems like it will never be soup weather again, but it’s coming. And so is cold and flu season.
Chickpea in the Style of Chicken Soup
Make this soup when you’re feeling under the weather, or make some and freeze it for when you or someone you love gets sick. If you don’t have nutritional yeast, feel free to omit it and use 8 cups of vegetable stock instead of the water. Feel free to stir in some cooked small pasta before serving to make it a chickpea noodle soup.
Makes about 3 quarts
¼ cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried dill
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon turmeric
3 cups cooked chickpeas (or two 15-ounce cans, drained)
8 cups water
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 cup green peas (thawed if frozen)
Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and carrot and cook until softened, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, dill, black pepper, and turmeric and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more.
Add the chickpeas, water, and nutritional yeast and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook on low, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Off heat, add the green peas.
Continue to feel better. 🙏❤️
Glad you’re on the upswing!