Chickpea and flageolet bean soup

Low G.I recipe for endurance training

This soup is a meal itself, it is very easy to make and is great for endurance. Beans and pulses are a very healthy alternative low G.I. carbohydrate to rice, pasta and couscous. You can experiment with different types of bean — flageolet and chickpeas work well, but you might want to try butter beans or borlotti beans.

This soup does taste better if you leave the beans to soak overnight, but quite frankly, unless you are cooking for a special occasion, life is too short to soak beans — a good quality tin is fine.

Method

1. Chop the onion and or or leek and sauté in some olive oil on a gentle heat with the bay leaf.
2. Roughly chop the other vegetables and add them to the pan and cook for 5 minutes or so. Add the ras-el-hanout spice mix (this is a north-African spice mix that you can buy in most supermarkets now. If you can't find it, use Schwartz Moroccan spice mix or make your own combination with a selection of the following: cumin, coriander, fennel, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, chili).
3. Add the garlic, ginger, orange zest, beans and chickpeas, tomatoes, tomato puree and the stock.
4. Cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender. Check for seasoning. You may need some more spice  — play around a bit; you could try adding a little ground coriander or cardamom, for instance. Add the fresh herbs but reserve a little for decoration.
5. Transfer to a large serving bowl. Drizzle some fruity olive oil onto the soup and sprinkle with a little fresh parsley or coriander.
6. Eat with chunks of crusty bread.

Ingredients

• 1 onion or leek, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 carrot
• 1 small celery stalk
• Olive oil
• ½ litre vegetable stock
• 1cm fresh ginger, grated
• Grated orange zest
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 200g tin flageolet beans (use butter beans or cannellini as alternatives)
• 200g tin chickpeas
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbs tomato puree
• 1 tsp parika
• 1 tsp ras-el-hanout spice mix
• 2 inch cinnamon stick
• Handful of fresh flat-leaved parsley or coriander, roughly chopped

Vital Statistics

Serves: 2
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Good for: Low G.I. meal good for endurance. Good, healthy weekday staple
Calories (kcal): 404.1
Protein (g): 23.1
Carbs (g): 53.4
Fat (g): 11
Fiber (g): 12.4
http://www.realbuzz.com/articles/chickpea-and-flageolet-bean-soup/