Hearty cabbage & chickpea soup

Winter = soup! This is lovely hearty way to get stuck into some cold weather… I used some Nolans Road organic kabuli chickpeas (from Wholefoods House, Woollahra) that were fantastic & only needed about 20 minutes cooking after soaking all night… and also ate it with some toasted day old Iggy’s country round sourdough (just seen) of course!

What to do:

• The night before, place your dried chickpeas in the glass bowl and fill the bowl with cold water to double the height of the chickpeas, add the bicarb and stir. They will need to soak for at least 12 hours.
• At the start of the lesson:
• Drain the chickpeas into the colander and rinse them well, then put them into the medium saucepan with about 3cm cold water to cover.
• Rinse the sage, keeping the branch whole, and shake dry. Peel 3 of the garlic cloves and add them, whole, to the saucepan. Also add the branch of sage, a teaspoon of salt & grind of pepper. Set on a medium heat and simmer for 2o minutes.
• Meanwhile wash the leeks, scoring and peeling the outer layers off to look for hidden dirt, and then finely chop the leeks into thin slices.
• Chop the cabbage in half and wash, checking for slugs or dirt to clean! Chop finely, cutting the core into small slivers.
• Peel and chop the onion into small dice. Squeeze the remaining 3 cloves of garlic through the press. Wash the parsley and spin dry. Finely chop.
• In the large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Stir in the onion, leeks and garlic and cook GENTLY until onion is transparent, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in stock or water, with a teaspoon of salt and grind of pepper. Bring to the boil, then stir in bouillon powder if using, and the cabbage. Simmer until cabbage wilts, about 10 minutes.
• Chickpeas: After 20 minutes set the sieve over a heatproof bowl and carefully pour the chickpeas and their liquid in to drain, then scoop the chickpeas out into the cabbage soup with a cup of the cooking liquid.
• Stir in the tomatoes and return to the boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes stirring often.
• Check for seasoning and add in the chopped parsley. Ladle into serving bowls.