Tomato Couscous Soup Recipe
The secret of this delicious tomato couscous soup lies in the use of fresh, wholesome, local ingredients, and the simplest cooking method.
Servings: 4
Calories: 228kcal
Equipment
- stockpot or saucepan
Ingredients
- ½ Cup pearl couscous
- ½ Cup chickpeas (canned or pre cooked)
- 1 ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 small size celery stalk, finely chopped
- 1 medium size onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 8 - 10 cherry tomato cut into halves
- 1 Cup mixed vegetables (carrot, peas, zucchini)
- 1 litre vegetable stock or water combined with stock cube (get stock recipe)
- 1 teaspoon cooking salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon crushed black pepper or to taste
- Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
- Handful of Italian basil leaves, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Begin by heating a large stockpot over medium heat.
- Add olive oil, followed by finely chopped garlic, celery, bay leaf, and onion. Sauté until they are soft and translucent approximately 30 - 40 seconds. No need to brown them.
- Add diced tomatoes and tomato paste, vegetables, and cook for a 1 – 2 minutes, ensuring tomatoes start releasing their juices.
- At this stage, add the seasoning, stock cube and water/stock also.
- Add the chickpeas, and couscous then reduce the heat to low.
- Cover the pot and let the soup simmer for 15 minutes, or until the couscous is cooked and absorbs all the flavour of soup.
- Add chopped fresh herbs. Taste, the soup and if required add more seasoning.
- Serve tomato couscous soup warm with a toasted bread slice.
Notes
Chickpeas: Canned or pre-boiled chickpeas (chana) works best for this soup recipe. However, if you have some soaked raw chickpeas, add them to the soup before adding couscous. Cover and simmer the soup over low heat till chickpeas are fully cooked. Once chickpeas are cooked, add couscous and cook till done.
Drain and rinse the canned chickpeas before adding to the soup.
Couscous: Do not use regular granular couscous for this soup recipe. Use pearl couscous only. If not available you can substitute it with pearl barley also.
Pearl Couscous cooks very quickly. Hence, after adding it to the soup, do not cook for too long, else they will become mushy.
Liquid Ratio: Pearl Couscous absorbs liquid like anything especially after a few hours in the soup. Hence, make sure you add enough stock/water to the soup. While storing the leftover soup, add extra stock or broth. So that while reheating, you have enough liquid in the soup.
Vegetables: If you are using frozen vegetables, thaw them as per packet instructions before adding to the soup. But I highly recommend using fresh vegetables for better taste and nutrition.
From a variety of mushrooms, green beans, potato, squash, cabbage, or spinach, you can add easy-to-cook vegetables in this soup.
Nutrition
Calories: 228kcal | Carbohydrates: 37g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Sodium: 1669mg | Potassium: 397mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 3141IU | Vitamin C: 17mg | Calcium: 43mg | Iron: 2mg