Sweet and Simple 30-Minute Chickpea Coconut Soup
This chickpea coconut soup is sweet, easy and delicious! Kids love the sweet flavours, but it is packed with vegetables and no sugar in sight. Plus, it takes 10 minutes to cook in the Instant Pot.
I truly believe that homemade soup is the easiest way to get vegetables into young children. They can’t pick out certain veggies, the flavours blend well, and they can choose how they want to eat it: spoon or sip, bowl or mug, so thick you can spread it on toast, or thinned out until they might as well drink a glass of water with a pea in it.
It was always my go-to lunch with my kids when they were little, especially during cooler weather. And even now, I fill these gorgeous kid Thermos-style flasks that they love with hot soup and it stays warm until lunch at school or nursery.
But for a while, my son’s flasks were coming back still half-full. He definitely went through the 2-3 year old fussiness stage much more obviously than his sister, and lunchboxes in all forms were returning barely touched, but soup in particular.
I was stumped.
He had always loved soup, even on his fussier days.
Fortunately I kept offering it during that fussy time, and he would usually have a couple of sips, and now that he is getting less picky, he does have more and slurp it more happily.
But this chickpea coconut soup? This one disappeared quickly. Quicker even than my squash & apple soup!
The mug was licked clean, and there were tomatoes dripping down little chins.
My daughter declared it was the best soup she’d ever had. But then she can be prone to the dramatic. So I waited for my son’s reaction.
“You make the best things mummy.”
I don’t think my heart could be any more melted.
“Can I have some more?”
Oh wait, yes it could.
He didn’t even ask for bread with it (unheard of)!
For an un-blended soup, this chickpea coconut soup was well and truly a resounding success.
All it took was:
- my magical amazing Instant Pot that I am completely in love with for its time-saving and life-saving abilities (although you can definitely make this on the stovetop if you don’t have one)
- 10 minutes prep and 10 minutes of cooking
- vegan and gluten free ingredients suitable for all
And what I got was:
- delicious sweet-tasting-but-not-sweetened flavours
- a freezable batch-cookable lunchbox-flask-worthy soup
- little tummies full of veg and happy smiles covered in orange-y tomato sauce
- empty flasks/bowls/mugs
This chickpea coconut soup is sweet, easy and delicious! Kids love the sweet flavours, but it is packed with vegetables and no sugar in sight. Plus, it takes 10 minutes to cook in the Instant Pot.
- 1 400g (14oz) tin chopped tomatoes (or plum tomatoes which are better quality, just make sure to squish them before adding so you don't get whole tomatoes in there!)
- 1 l (4 cups) stock (vegetable or meat both work well, homemade is always best, but a shop-bought liquid one – not stock cubes – is a decent substitute)
- 1 400g (14 oz) tin chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
- 250 ml (1 cup) coconut cream
- a few handfuls of frozen mixed veg (about 3 cups' worth)
- 150 g (1 cup) frozen diced onions (use fresh if you prefer and have the time to dice them)
- 3 tablespoons tomato puree (paste)
- 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger (I use a zester to get it really finely grated)
- 2 minced garlic cloves (I use the zester again here and grate them, but you can chop or put through a garlic press if you prefer)
- 2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 de-seeded and finely sliced red chilli or 1/8 teaspoons chilli flakes or 2 teaspoons smoked paprika, optional
- 1 stalk of lemongrass
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander (cilantro)
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 kaffir lime leaves, optional (you can use the juice of half a lime if you prefer, or just leave out, but the lime leaves give a lovely flavour)
- sea salt & fresh ground black pepper, to taste
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Add all the ingredients to your Instant Pot and set the valve to "Sealing", then use the Manual/Pressure Cook function set to 10 minutes. Manually release the pressure, remove the lemongrass stalk and kaffir lime leaves, and serve hot in bowls or mugs on its own or with some crusty bread and nice cheese.
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No Instant Pot? You can make this on the stove top by adding all of the ingredients to a large saucepan or stockpot and bring to the boil, then simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked and everything is piping hot.
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