This is a very traditional dish in Greece and very tasty. I have written variations of how to make chickpeas in the past, yet this recipe has some new tweaks that a friend of mine taught me. Here it is..!
Ingredients: 400 gr chickpeas soaked in water overnight – optionally add a small tsp of soda powder to help soaking, 2 chopped onions, 2 melted garlic cloves, 1 lemon zest,1 lemon juice, extra lemon for serving, 1 tsp of thyme, 3-4 bay leaves, salt and pepper to season (in this case I also put some chili pepper because I think that my pepper is weak (!), broth, olive oil according to your tastes and diet
As a rule, chickpeas don’t need a lot of ingredients because they are full of flavor. In this case I overcame this rule by adding thyme and a bit of garlic to give it a twist. Not bad, may I say!
Chickpeas as well as most legumes need to be put in cold water and gradually come to boil. Don’t put them in hot water at the beginning of cooking because this creates a shock and they harden. Also, putting salt at the beginning might firm them up – so try to add it towards the end. Lastly, in my cuisine I have paused using salt according to doctors’ orders therefore I use lemon or vinegar as a substitute and keep my veins healthier.
So, put your chickpeas in a pot with some water and let them boil at a medium temperature. After 15’ of boiling toss this water, strain your chickpeas and put them on the side. Inside a pressure cooker which you have placed on your stove on medium fire, sauté the onions and the garlic, adding thyme, bay leaves and lemon zest. Add your chickpeas and cover with warm this time broth plus 3-4cm. Close the pressure cooker and let the food simmer for 45-60’. Open the pressure cooker and while still on medium fire, add your lemon, a little olive oil, salt and pepper.
After an hour or an hour and a half of cooking, good legumes must be cooked and ready to be consumed. In case they are not, in my opinion, they don’t stand a lot of chances to be cooked. Even if you continue boiling the legume for three hours the result will be almost the same. Therefore eat them as they are or ... toss them.
If you want your soup to be thick, once it is ready, remove 200gr of chickpeas and broth, put it in a blender and melt into a thick chunky mixture. Add back to your soup. This will give a rich texture in your chickpeas soup. At this time of year in my country is summer and as a matter of fact quite hot, so you can enjoy this soup in room temperature.
Enjoy!