Sausage and Chickpea Soup

You can literally come home from work and make this for dinner it's that easy. With five kids at home, I often doubled or tripled this recipe. I also do not hesitate to add more of the sausage or vegetables - just remember that if you increase the chicken stock, you want to make sure you increase the spices accordingly.

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 hot Italian sausages - casings removed
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • I onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped or minced)
  • 2 carrots cut into bit sized pieces
  • 4 stalks of celery, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 jalapeno pepper sliced (I always use the ones in a jar and just chop up a tablespoon full)
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp coriander
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1 - 795 ml can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 - 540 ml can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
  • 4 c. chicken stock
  • 1/2 c chipped cilantro

Icing

SAUCE

toppings

dressing

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Remove the casing from the sausages - this is really easy of they are frozen (run warm water over the sausage and then run a knife down the side and the casign will peel off easily).
  2. Break the sausage up into chunks and then fry it in canola in a soup pot. The more you stir it the more the meat will break up so to avoid turning the sausage into ground meat let it cook a bit before stirring and then stir carefully.
  3. Once the sausage is cooked, add the vegetables and cook then for about 10 minutes.
  4. Add the jalapenos and spices and fry until fragrant.
  5. Add the tomatoes in their juice, chickpeas and chicken stock.
  6. Simmer for about 20 minutes and serve with cilantro.

TIPS & HINTS

If you don't like spicy food, use mild Italian sausages and omit the jalapenos.