Chickpea Stew with Saffron, Yogurt, and Egg

January 7, 2016 at 9:50 pm (101 cookbooks, Beans, C (2 stars, okay, edible), Necessarily nonvegan, Quick weeknight recipe, soup, Uncategorized)

This is another recipe featured on Food52’s Genius Recipes page. It’s from Heidi Swanson’s cookbook Super Natural Every Day. I chose it because I had some chickpeas and homemade vegetable broth to use up, and a student of mine from Iran got me a boatload of saffron as a gift. Also, it looked pretty easy, and I needed to make a quick lunch that was suitable for both Alma and me.

This recipe was indeed pretty easy. I just cut the onion, sauteed it, added in the chickpeas, broth, and garlic, then whisked together the yogurt and egg yolks, tempered them, and added them back to the pot to cook for a few more minutes. While it was finishing up, I chopped some cilantro for the garnish.

I thought that this recipe worked. If I closed my eyes would I think it was cream based? No. But it was warming and filling enough for a one-pot lunch. I didn’t love it. I think I put too much saffron in. What should have been “just a whisper of saffron” was quite a dominant flavor in my soup. (I guess my 2 modest pinches weren’t so modest after all.) Also, both Derek and I felt like the soup was missing something. I would like to make a similar soup again, but change it up somehow. I think I might try adding a bit of tomato sauce to the broth, but I’m a bit worried the acid might curdle the yogurt?  And a vegetable or two would be nice. Maybe carrots and fennel? Or celery root and cauliflower? Leeks and peas? I’m not sure, but it felt like it needed something else, both texturally and flavorwise.

Alma seemed to be on the fence about this soup. She liked the chickpeas (as always), but she found the broth (without salt) less exciting. And the onion pieces seemed to bother her a bit, I assume because of her lack of teeth, not because of the taste. Once she had picked out all the chickpeas, she was pretty uninterested in this soup.