Food Storage Friday: Pasta and Garbanzo Bean Soup

Start the New Year off right, with a gourmet food storage soup!


This recipe comes from Bon Appetit via Epicurious.com. The original recipe can be found here. It's been adapted to be made with only non perishables and in the crock pot, because with dried beans, there's nothing better.




Ingredients: Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans, canned tomatoes, beef bouillon, water, garlic powder, onion powder, sage, rosemary, and orzo. Edit the olive oil out, I didn't end up using any.



Rinse your beans in cold water and drain them, I use a colander. Toss the beans in your crock pot and add water.




You could use already prepared beef broth if you want.



Add the bouillon




And the canned tomatoes. Because we will be pureeing the soup, you can use whatever tomatoes you want: whole, diced, crushed, in the words of PW: "whatever makes your skirt fly up."




Add your spices, and I need to add garlic powder to my shopping list!


Sage is one that I rarely use, so it was fun to get it out.


Now, you can use dried rosemary, or if you have a trusty 3 month supply of rosemary growing in your backyard all year long, you can use that instead.



Seriously, if the stores are ever out, drop by. I think I have enough rosemary to season food for everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line.




If you LOVE the rosemary flavor, add two stalks/stems/branches/whatever they're called. If you prefer not having a huge rosemary flavor, just add one.




Rinse them off and drop them in the soup as is. As the soup heats up, the leaves will fall right off the branches, and will get pureed with the rest of the soup.



Turn your crock pot on high, if you are making dinner after noon. If you have all day I suppose you could cook it on low. But when have I ever thought that far in advance?

Although I feel like I should make a note, if you are planning on leaving your house during the cooking time, you probably ought to keep your crock pot on low.

SafelyGatheredIn.blogspot.com will not be held liable for any homes burned down while cooking any of their recipes.

After 3-4 hours, pop the lid off and check the tenderness of the beans, they should be tender. Obviously. Oh and by the looks of the picture, I think Mountain Man threw a bay leaf in while I wasn't looking, but you don't have to worry about that--it'll be good without too.





When your beans are tender, fish around for your rosemary stalks if you used fresh herbs. All the leaves should have fallen off leaving just the branch.




Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth. Mountain Man got impatient with the slow nature of our immersion blender, so he threw the soup in the real blender, that got the job done quick-like.




It should be a nice creamy soup after you've pureed it.



Thirty minutes or so before serving, add the orzo, a rice-shaped pasta, to the crock pot. Let the pasta cook until al dente and then serve!

Just a note, the original recipe calls for fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese to be served on top of the soup. Mountain Man and I didn't think it added anything to the flavor of the soup, in fact the parsley didn't work for us at all. But it's something you could try if you were rotating.





A delicious, gourmet soup to serve on these cold winter nights.





Pasta and Garbanzo Bean Soup
adapted from Epicurious.com


1-16oz pkg Garbanzo beans/Chickpeas
2-16oz cans tomatoes
6 cups water
6 tsp beef bouillon
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried rubbed sage
1 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled, or 1-2 stalks fresh rosemary
1 cup orzo

Rinse beans under cold water. Drain and add to crock pot. Add water and bouillon to crock pot. Add the cans of tomatoes, onion powder, garlic powder, sage and rosemary. Turn crock pot on high for 3 -4 hours. When beans are tender, turn crock pot to low and remove stalks, if using fresh herbs. Puree the soup using an immersion blender or the blender. When using the blender with hot liquids, work in small batches, only filling the blender 1/3 way full. When the soup is pureed and smooth, add the orzo, cook for 30 minutes or until al dente. Serve!