This is a great recipe. One of my best friends, Katie, shared it with me a couple of years ago. It's another easy recipe, and very tasty. It freezes well too.
I made this batch with gnocchi instead of tortellini to make it vegan - it was a success.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
7 cups water or vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
1 large carrot, finely diced
1 19ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 28ounce can crushed tomatoes in puree
3/4 tsp salt plus more to taste
10 ounce fresh spinach - washed, stemmed, and chopped OR 1 10ounce box frozen chopped spinach
2 tablespoons fresh basil, or 2 tsp dried
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, or 1 tsp dried
~19ounce package of cheese or other favorite tortellini (or gnocchi)
freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat oil in large soup pot.
Stir in onion and celery, and saute over medium-high heat for ~7 minutes, until onion is translucent.
Stir in garlic; saute for 30 seconds, add water or stock, bay leaves, and carrot.
Bring soup to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until carrots are tender.
Stir in chickpeas, tomatoes, salt, spinach, and herbs - then simmer soup, partially covered, for ~10minutes, until spinach is tender (if using frozen spinach, drop the entire frozen block into the pot - let cook apart).
About 5-8 minutes before serving, add tortellini.
Simmer for 5-8 minutes, or until tortellini are tender.
Add salt/pepper to taste.
Enjoy!
Makes 4 servings.
If you are not going to eat all of the soup at once, do not add all of the tortellini. Add some tortellini each time you heat/reheat a batch, so they don't get soggy and break apart.
