Chickpea Orzo Soup

This Chickpea Orzo Soup is fresh warmth in a bowl. It is filled with satisfying orzo, hearty chickpeas, spinach, onions, carrots, and celery, all in a light lemony broth. Eat to your health!

Why I Love This Soup

First off, I just love orzo! It has such a comforting texture with a soft creaminess. It is basically tiny pieces of rice shaped pasta. It is the perfect partner to some fresh veggies in a beautifully seasoned broth brightened up with a splash of lemon. A vegan version of chicken soup is a good way to describe how warm and satisfying it is!

This dish somehow makes me think of spring. Maybe it’s the addition of spinach, I don’t know. But I find myself often making it in winter. Perhaps it’s because my body is usually craving the vitamin C found in lemon juice and spinach. Spinach also contains iron and vitamin K. The fiber content is awesome in this soup as well thanks in part to the chickpeas.

Some Additions

This soup is a healthy, light meal as is. Sometimes however, I wish to make it a bit more. Often I make it with the addition of my Crispy Air Fried Tofu This adds another texture element as well as some extra protein and antioxidants. The seasonings in this recipe pair well with the soup!

Another addition I will sometimes add is 1/4 cup of tahini. It takes the soup from a light lemon flavor to a more muted savory flavor. I love this addition and encourage you to try it!

Gather Up Your Ingredients

For this soup you will need:

1 large onion
1 large carrot
2 celery stalks
4 garlic cloves
salt
pepper
poultry seasoning
orzo pasta
vegetable broth
1 can of chickpeas
fresh spinach
white miso paste

Once you dice up the veggies it’s easy! Everything goes into one pot. I saute the vegetables in a little broth until they are soft and the onions are slightly caramelized. Then I stir in the garlic and seasonings. There is just something about toasting seasonings for a minute that seems to bring out the flavor.

After this, I pour in the vegetable stock, orzo, and rinsed and drained chickpeas. Now it is starting to look good! I bring all of this to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer to let the veggies and orzo cook.

Lastly, I stir in the lemon juice, spinach, and miso. The warm broth will wilt the spinach just enough. You might think you are adding in too much spinach, but once it wilts it will reduce in size and be the perfect amount. Make sure you are not stirring in the miso paste to boiling hot broth either. Miso is a fermented food, meaning it contains live, active cultures of bacteria….like you would find in yoghurt. Adding it to boiling water will kill the probiotics in the miso. This upsets the health benefits it offers like better digestive health.

There you have it! A one pot delicious soup that only takes 10 minutes to cook. Pretty healthy and pretty awesome. Let me know how you like it by adding your comment!

Happy Eating!

~Lora