Greek Lemon Chickpea Soup

and composting imperfectly

April 5, 2023

Greetings,

Dill is one of those aromatic herbs that make me think of spring. It may have been readily available at my grocery store all winter, but it went unnoticed by me. I bought a feathery bunch the other day, put it in a glass of water, and it has been waiting in my fridge until I made a pot of Greek Lemon Chickpea soup the other day. Dill, common in Mediterranean cuisine, is said to calm an upset stomach and its name derives from the Norse word dylla which means “to soothe”. I had never tried to grow it before, but I planted a packet of seeds last weekend after reading that it can be sown as soon as the soil can be worked and temperatures are above 25 degrees F. It’s an annual, but it tends to self-sow. I planted the seeds along the top of our driveway and look forward to a profusion of very tall, yellow dill flowers to greet me when I come home.

Digging in the dirt led me to wonder how things were progressing in our newish compost tumbler. Compost bins were given out to any resident of our town who wanted one several years ago to prolong the viability of our landfill. We have used the bin with some success, retrieving humus from the trapdoor at the bottom each spring to use in the garden. Composts require both nitrogen and carbon as well as water and oxygen. Vegetable and fruit scraps, nut shells, egg shells, coffee grounds, and tea bags provide nitrogen. The carbon comes from dead leaves, hay, straw, sawdust, and shredded paper. My husband wasn’t happy with the system since it was difficult to access the inside of the bin with a shovel to stir things up and hasten the process. When he spotted a used compost tumbler for sale at the nursery where we buy our Christmas wreath every year, he bought it. The tumbler has a crank to churn things up daily that provides a bit of a workout as a bonus. As I mentioned, humus, which is a dark, rich color, loose and crumbly, and smells like fresh soil, should be the end product. When we emptied the composter last fall we had a wheelbarrow (or two) full of softball-sized clumps of hard dirt. It wasn’t quite the end product that we had in mind. In any event, we are still big proponents of composting and hope for better results this year. Here is a print-out to remind you of what you can compost.

Landscape Compost

1.3MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Back to that soup. I originally saw an enticing photo of a Greek Lemon Chickpea Soup on Pinterest and combined a couple of recipes to come up with this version. The lemon peel that is in the pan when the onions are sauteed smells heavenly and the dill is essential to the soup. Tempering the eggs may sound tricky, but it is simply a method to combine the raw eggs with the hot broth so that they don’t turn into scrambled eggs. It creates a rich base for the soup. Cannellini beans could be swapped out for the chickpeas if that sounds more to your liking. Onion skins, lemon rinds, and egg shells all went into our composter!

Greek Lemon Chickpea Soup

Ingredients

olive oil

1 c. chopped yellow onion

1 c. chopped carrots

2 long strips of lemon peel, I used a vegetable peeler

1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

4 cloves of garlic, minced

8 c. of chicken stock (or vegetable broth)

6 c. chickpeas

3/4 c. orzo

1 t. salt

1 1/2 t. coarse black pepper

3 large eggs at room temperature

4 c. chopped spinach

1/4 c. chopped dill

1/4 c. Italian parsley

1/4 t. red pepper flakes, ground to a powder

Directions

Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Sautee the onion, carrots, and lemon peel until the vegetables have softened, about ten minutes. Add the garlic for an additional minute.

Add the stock to the pot along with salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil and add chickpeas and orzo. Simmer uncovered for ten minutes. Reduce the heat to low and use a strainer to remove 3/4 c. of the stock. Set aside.

Place eggs and lemon juice in a bowl ( I combined them in a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup so that I could eventually utilize the spout) and whisk to combine. Very slowly stream the 3/4 c. of stock into the egg and lemon while you continue to whisk. The eggs need to be tempered while you whisk continuously.

While gently stirring the soup, stream the egg-lemon broth slowly into the pot on the stove. Add spinach and cook for five minutes. Remove the lemon peel. Stir in the dill, parsley, and red pepper.

Serve.

Thanks for reading!

Vicki