Cream of chickpeas: the recipe for a nutritious and creamy starter

The chickpea cream It is one of comfort food of peasant tradition par excellence: nutrient e creamyit is excellent for warming up cold winter days.

The recipe for making it is Easy, fast ed economicbut ensures a delicious result: just soak the chickpeas overnight, cook them with a clove of garlic and rosemary, mix them and strain them through a sieve, ideal to obtain a homogeneous consistency and a velvety texture perfect.

To achieve this, we start from dried chickpeasbut you can also use precooked, glass or canned.

In addition, the basic preparation can be enriched with a sautéed with carrots, celery and leek or even with a vegetables soup previously prepared. To make it creamier just add a diced potato, while if you prefer it more liquid you will need to add more stock or water.

Served plain, the chickpea cream is vegan and gluten-free. It is therefore suitable for all guests, even children, who particularly appreciate its smoothness.

On the other hand, however, chickpeas pair easily with different flavors: from ingredients such as shrimp, octopus, salt cod, zucchini e polloup to the most disparate spices and herbs, such as cuminhey GingerIlaurelthe salvia where he Rosemary.

Finally, if you are looking for other recipes that feature this legume, you can try making one chickpea soup or a chickpea and pumpkin soup.

How to prepare chickpea soup

First, take the dried chickpeas and let them soak for 8-12 hours: this step will allow you to have more digestible and creamy legumes 1. You can also use canned chickpeas if you prefer: in this case, rinse them thoroughly with the preservative liquid.

After the chickpeas soak time, rinse them under running water for a few minutes 2.

Meanwhile, pour the oil into a large frying pan, add the peeled clove of garlic and sauté for a few minutes. 3. You can also create a jumped up richer with carrots, leek or onion and celery.

Add the whole sprig of rosemary to be able to remove it easily before blending the chickpeas 4.

Pour the chickpeas into the pan and let them roast for a few minutes 5.

Completely cover the chickpeas with water and cook for about 1h30 6. If foam appears during cooking, remove it with a fine-mesh copper plate or slotted spoon. To flavor the dish even more, you can replace the water with vegetables soup made with celery, onions and carrots. If you want to make your soup even creamier, cut a potato into cubes instead and add it about an hour after the end of cooking.

After the indicated cooking time, remove the sprig of rosemary, blend the chickpeas in an immersion blender or blender seven.

Check that there are no more chickpea pieces left by straining the cream in the blender 8. Cook a little longer, until most of the water has evaporated and the dish looks smooth and even.

The chickpea cream is ready: serve it with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of pepper, accompany it with bread croutons and garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary 9.

Tip: with what to accompany the chickpeas?

I this it is a light and not very decisive legume in the mouth. In fact, there are many combinations that enhance and enhance the flavor. Among the most important, for example, is the zucchinithe carrots and the pollobut also seafood ingredients like me shrimphe octopus e others clamsexcellent in preparations such as spaghetti with clams and chickpeasthe clam and chickpea soup where to chickpea and octopus soup.

However, to enjoy them at their best, the secret is to flavor them with spices ed herbsfirst of all thelaurelthe salviahe Rosemaryhe cuminhe currythe turmeric and the paprika.

Here’s a little trick to serve our cream in a spectacular way: pour it into a bowl, decorate it with a drizzle of oil, add a sprig of rosemary or pan-fried shrimp on the surface and accompany it with crispy croutons.

Variants

The recipe for chickpea soup lends itself to being declined in different variations. This legume, in fact, has a very delicate taste: a characteristic that makes it versatile and easy to combine with different ingredients. Just think of the Moroccan chickpea creamspicy and fragrant with Ginger e cuminoppose a the Ligurian which involves the addition of herbs and tomatoes. Here, however, two classic variants: chickpea cream with prawns and zucchini cream.

Creamy chickpea soup with prawns

One of the best known and most appreciated combinations with chickpeas is certainly that with shrimps. Then prepare the chickpea soup as the recipe described above. In this case, you can also use black chickpeas, so that the color contrast of the dish is sharp. When the cream is almost ready, coat 6 prawns in sesame, drizzle some oil in a separate pan and cook the prawns inside for a few minutes, until perfectly cooked. Ladle the soup into bowls and place 3 shrimp per serving on top. Finally, garnish with a drizzle of raw oil and a sprig of rosemary.

Chickpea soup with zucchini

Chickpeas are particularly versatile, which is why they combine easily with vegetables with a delicate and discreet taste, such as zucchini. For 200 grams of chickpeas, use 200 grams of zucchini. Then rinse the zucchini well and remove the ends, then cut them into rings. Add the zucchini to the chickpeas when there is about an hour left in the cooking time. If you prefer, you can use vegetable broth instead of water in this case. Blend the chickpeas and zucchini and serve with a few croutons seasoned with oil, salt and rosemary. If, on the contrary, you are looking for more pronounced flavors, complete the dish with sautéed porcini mushrooms and use them as decoration.

storage

The chickpea cream is preserved in the refrigerator by 2-3 days, sealed in an airtight container. Before serving, we recommend reheating it. In addition, it can also be frozen: in this case, place it in the freezer already portioned.