Scrumptious Spanish Soup

Tonight's dinner comes once again from Jamie Oliver's - Jamie's Dinners. The photo for this soup in the cookbook looked so tempting, I had to make it. It also allowed me to use some leftover chorizo sausages I had in the freezer. The only thing that was a little off putting for me, was the addition of grated egg....at first, when I looked at the picture I thought it was cheese...grated egg on soup is not something I would have ever thought of. However, Jamie also mentions that he thought this was unexpected when he had this soup in Barcelona, and after trying it, decided that it added a "lovely richness". I figured if he could give it a go then I could too and he was right...it was lovely.

This is a great healthy soup (I'm always on the lookout for good soup recipes), was not hard to prepare and tasted delicious. I will say that Jamie Oliver must be a huge eater....every recipe I have made out of his books so far (which admittedly is not that many....but enough) has served way more than he says. For instance, this recipe says it serves 4, but I easily got 6 servings out of it.




Scrumptious Spanish Chickpea and Chorizo Soup
(Serves 4-6)

Olive oil
5 1/2oz chorizo sausage, finely chopped
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
1lb of fresh spinach, washed and chopped
8 fresh tomatoes, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 14oz can of chickpeas, drained
5 cups chicken stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2oz pata negra, spanish ham or prosciutto, finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil
2 hard boiled eggs

1. Add olive oil into a large pot and add the chorizo. Allow to heat up and cook for a couple of minutes until the fat comes out of the chorizo. Add onion, garlic and celery. Turn down heat and cook slowly for 15 minutes with the lid on. Now take the lid off, stir and add spinach, tomatoes, chick peas and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer for 40 minutes.

2. Remove about 1/3 of the mixture and puree in a food processor. Pour it back in the pot, stir and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir in pata negra or ham and add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Divide into bowls and grate the hard boiled egg on top.