ham and chickpea soup

For those of you that celebrate Nowruz, Holi, the Passover, or Easter, I hope you had a wonderful celebration. This Easter, I took a break from cooking and let M do all the cooking. We feasted on a delicious smoked ham, collard greens, and potatoes. Just like Thanksgiving, the leftovers will continue to provide second and third meals over the next couple of weeks and I don’t mind that one bit. We cut the ham up and froze some of it while the other bit goes into this soup that gets a major portion of its flavor from garlic, tomatoes, and paprika. Serve it with warm garlic bread because the liquid deserves to be sopped up!

For the pasta, I used my friend Dan Pashman of the Sporkful podcast’s new pasta called cascatelli. Over the past 3 years, Dan’s been working to create a shape that resembles waterfalls (hence the name) and its unique shape helps grab sauces and liquids. Dan talks about the pasta on his show and it is been fun to see it come to life. Learn more about it here.

A few kitchen notes;

The butter needs to brown but stop crackling. If you add oil to it early, the water that’s separated from the fat will start to fly out all over the place.

You can sub rotisserie chicken in place of ham.

Cooking time is dependent on the shape and size of your pasta.

Add water to make the soup volume back up after its done cooking. Again, this will vary depending on the pasta you use.

I’ve not listed a weight for celery greens, it’s a rough 1/4 cup measure. It does not need to be a precise weight here.

ham and chickpea soup

makes 4 servings

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium [about 260g] onion, minced

6 garlic cloves, peeled and grated

4 Tbsp [55g] tomato paste

2 tsp smoked sweet paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cayenne

2 cups [320g] leftover ham, chopped

one 15 oz [425g] can chickpeas, drained

1 cup cascatelli pasta*

4 cups [960ml] water**

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh celery greens

fine sea salt

2 Tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley or cilantro for garnish

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook till the butter turns brown and it stops cracking, about 4 minutes. Add the oil. Add the onions and sauté till they turn translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the garlic, tomato paste, paprika, cumin, and cayenne and cook for 30 seconds till fragrant. Stir in the celery greens ham, chickpeas, pasta, and water. Add 1/2 tsp of salt, increase the heat to high and bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook covered till the pasta is tender, about 15 minutes (this will vary depending on the type and size of the pasta you use - I used cascatelli which took 15 minutes). Remove from the heat, taste and season with salt if needed. If after cooking, the liquid volume drops, add more water as needed. Serve the soup warm and garnish with the parsley.

Notes:

*pasta - Pasta cooking time varies. The smaller the shape, the shorter the cooking time. If you decide to use a pasta other than cascatelli, like penne etc., adjust your cooking time.

**water - the soup volume will reduce after cooking (it also depends on how long you end up cooking due to the pasta size). I added 2 cups [480ml] of water after the cascatelli pasta was cooked to bring back the volume up.