Chickpea Bisque

Recipe shared in partnership with The Pantry

Recipe adapted from Laura Pyles

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

3 cups dried chickpeas, soaked

1 medium acorn squash

1 tablespoon honey

4 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for acorn squash

2 large onions, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Pinch of cayenne

4 1/2 cups vegetable stock

1 can coconut milk

Fried chickpeas (recipe attached)

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

- Soak the chickpeas overnight or “power soak” your beans. For the power soak, add the dried chickpeas to a medium pot and cover by 2 inches with cold water. Bring to a boil and set a timer for 2 minutes. Once the timer ends, let the beans soak for 1 hour in the hot water. Drain and use just like overnight soaked beans.

- Add the soaked beans to a medium sized pot, cover by 2 inches with cold water. Season with 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Bring beans to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook for 60 minutes until the beans are al dente. Drain the beans and set aside 2/3 for the bisque. Lay remaining 1/3 of chickpeas out on paper towels to dry out for frying.

- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the acorn squash in half, remove seeds from center cavity. Lay the squash on a parchment lined sheet tray, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with honey. Bake for 30 minutes or until squash is tender all the way through.

- Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add onions and sauté until translucent. Add the garlic, season and sauté for about a minute more.

- Add the dried spices and allow to toast briefly in the onions and garlic. Deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of the vegetable stock, scrape up any browned bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pot.

- When the acorn squash is out of the oven, scrape the flesh of the squash out of the skin and add to the pot along with the rest of stock, coconut milk and chickpeas. Season to taste and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook soup for 5-8 minutes to allow flavors to infuse together.

- Remove pot from heat and blend in batches till smooth

- Serve with a handful of fried chickpeas. (Recipe below)

Fried Chickpeas Recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup of chickpeas, soaked cooked and laid out to dry

1 cup high heat oil

Kosher salt, to taste

1 tablespoon grated lime zest

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

- Heat oil in a medium sized pot over medium-high heat.

- Add drained and dried chickpeas to oil and cook, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 5-8 minutes.

- Remove from oil onto paper towels to drain and sprinkle with salt, zest, and pepper.