More Soup!

We liked the tomato soup so much last night, I decided to make some soup for the week's lunches.  I had some colorful rainbow chard on hand from Eatwell Farm along with some canned chickpeas.  Here's what I did:

Chard and Chickpea Soup

1 Medium Onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
6 cups chicken broth
1 large bunch of chard
2 14 oz. cans of chickpeas or 1 1/2 cups dry chickpeas, cooked and drained
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper, or 1/8 tsp. cayenne
2-3 TBSP olive oil
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried parsley

Wash the chard well. Remove leaves from the stalks and set aside.  Dice the stalks into a fine dice.  This takes some time, but adds to the flavor of the soup.  Cut the chard leaves into 1-2 inch squares.

In a heavy bottom soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic and 1 tsp. salt.  Cook and stir occasionally until the onion is softened.  Add the celery, carrots and chopped chard stalks.  Add the dried herbs, pepper and stir.  Turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and allow the mixture to 'sweat' in the pan for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the chicken broth, chard leaves and chickpeas along with 2-4 cups of water so the soup is a consistency you like (some folks like a stew more than a soup).  Heat the soup thru until chard is cooked, adjust seasoning.  Serve in bowls, sprinkle some parmesan cheese over the top and enjoy with some crusty bread on the side.