Spanish Chickpea and Potato Soup

I was feeling like a meatless dinner, and I had some dried chickpeas sitting on the shelf. I flipped through my pressure cooker cook book, and came up with Spanish Chickpea and Potato Soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup dried chickpeas (soaked overnight or otherwise re-hydrated, or 1 can of chickpeas)
• 3 - 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium yellow onions, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
• 2 to 4 potatoes (Yukon gold or other, peeled & chopped into 1” pieces)
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon powdered garlic)
• 3 bay leaves
• 8 green olives - chopped small
• 1 tablespoon capers, drained chopped small
• 3 cups broth (either 1 can chicken or vegetable stock + water as needed, or all water)
• 1 tablespoon sweet Spanish paprika
• 1 cup marinated artichokes, chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley (or 3 teaspoons dry parsley)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 

Instructions:

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight in 4.5 cups of water.
   (Or pressure soak, using 4.5 cups of water and 1.5 cups dried chickpeas. Bring to high pressure, hold at high pressure for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow pressure to reduce naturally over 10 minutes.)
2. Rinse beans - check they have rehydrated completely - if not, add 5 minutes to cooking time. Rinse out pressure cooker and dry.
3. Add oil to pressure cooker, salute onions 5 minutes or so on medium high to soften.
   (Cook fresh garlic with onions for last minute or so.)
4. Add chickpeas, (powdered garlic if using), bell peppers, potatoes, olives, capers, and broth to onions. Stir together. Drop bay leaves on top.
5. Bring to high pressure, and maintain pressure for 20 minutes.
6. Remove from heat, and use a fast method to reduce pressure. Remove and discard bay leaves.
7. Add paprika, (dry parsley if using), and artichoke hearts. Let simmer for 5 or so minutes. Mash up some of the potatoes to thicken sauce.
8. Stir in the Parmesan cheese (and fresh parsley if using)
9. Add salt and pepper to taste.
10. Serve sprinkled with additional Parmesan cheese and lemon wedges (optional) - with rolls or biscuits.

Carole's Notes:

This was a filling soup. I liked the paprika in the soup - it gave it a sweetish feel. I will make this again.

fwiw, I upped the time in the recipe above for re-hydrating the chickpeas because the first version were still a bit crunchy.

The recipe was lightly adapted from ‘Spanish Potatoes and Chickpeas’ in 200 Best Pressure Cooker Recipes by Cinda Chavich - current version of the book is https://www.amazon.com/225-Best-Pressure-Cooker-Recipes/dp/0778804488