Chickpea and Beef Soup Recipe with Vegetables and Mint

Name: Chickpea and Beef Soup Recipe with Vegetables and Mint
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 2
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Bone-in beef 0.5 kg; Chickpeas 0.5 cup; Carrot 1; Onion 1; Mixed fresh herbs 0.5 bunch; Spices: black pepper, dried mint, bay leaf, salt to taste

I remember that back in my army days there was a thing called “demob borscht”. Plenty of people won't get it, but for some it's one of the brightest memories of their lives. Demob borscht was less a meal than a status symbol, considering how hard it was to actually eat.

As my friends put it, demob borscht is half a mess tin of borscht plus half a mess tin of sour cream. That's all there is to it. I'm not urging you to cook anything like that, and my army days are long gone anyway. But I really like the “half-and-half” principle.

Cooking liquid dishes, which people fondly call “the first course”, means following certain rules. Soup, borscht, pottage and the like are liquid dishes, and for some reason it's believed that liquid should make up at least half of the volume. I can only partly agree with that.

Take fisherman's ukha, for example, cooked over a campfire by the water from freshly caught fish: as a rule, it's simply a broth made from a lot of fish, and the fish itself is eaten fairly rarely. The whole point of ukha is the liquid. So the half-liquid rule doesn't hold there. Or a well-made pea soup with smoked ribs: it's thick, fragrant and incredibly tasty. In my opinion, pea soup is at its best when it turns into a purée.

So why does everyone think soup has to be a liquid dish? The way I see it, soup should be good and thick.

As it turned out, the tastiest soups are the ones with lots of the main ingredient and little of everything else. Chickpea and beef soup is a good example. It has plenty of chickpeas and plenty of meat. The soup takes just a few ingredients. Instead of grains, it uses chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, the same legume used for traditional falafel.

Ingredients

2 servings

Bone-in beef 0.5 kg
Chickpeas 0.5 cup
Carrot 1
Onion 1
Mixed fresh herbs 0.5 bunch
Spices: black pepper, dried mint, bay leaf, salt to taste

Step-by-step recipe

For a rich, hearty soup, I recommend a piece of lean beef from the hind leg or shoulder, always with a small bone. Wash the meat and cut it into 4 pieces: the meat goes into the soup in big chunks, since this is a meat soup after all.
Soak the chickpeas in cold water in advance for a few hours, ideally overnight, otherwise the soup will take a long time and be a hassle to cook.
Pour 1 l of cold water into a pot, add the meat and put it on the heat. As soon as foam appears, skim it off with a slotted spoon or a regular spoon until it stops forming. This is important.
Simmer the meat, covered, over the lowest heat for an hour or even longer, much as you would for a beef soup. You should end up with a wonderfully rich beef broth, or a strong broth, as they say. Some of the water will of course boil away, but that's no problem.
Add 1-2 bay leaves, a peeled carrot cut into large pieces and an onion cut into strips to the broth. I recommend slicing the onion lengthwise so you don't break the fibres, and then the soup won't turn into onion mush.
Top up with water from the kettle, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
Add the spices. I chose dried mint as the main aromatic spice. Many people may find that odd, since mint is supposedly “sweet”. To be honest, I thought so too until I tried it. Mint goes remarkably well with meat, which I didn't expect at all, and my wife couldn't even tell there was mint in the soup until I told her. That said, you can add a dried herb mix from Mediterranean or Provençal cuisine instead. Either way, add at least 1 tsp of mint or herbs. Also season with a little ground black pepper.
Simmer the soup over low heat for another 10 minutes, then add the chickpeas. Chickpeas are an interesting product in general. They're called garbanzo beans, gram, nakhut, hummus: mostly a lot of local names. Either way, chickpeas are a legume, but far more heat-loving than ordinary peas or lentils. And by the way, they take longer to cook.
Once the chickpeas are in, the soup enters its final stage and cooks until the chickpeas are completely tender. Mine were done in 35 minutes. Taste them for doneness and adjust the time.
Ladle the finished chickpea soup into bowls and serve hot.
Serve chopped parsley, dill and cilantro separately so everyone can add as much as they like. But I'll say it right away: the more herbs, the tastier.