Chickpea, Chili and Coriander Soup

This spicy, blended chickpea soup from Delia Smith's Vegetarian Collection is hearty enough to serve as a main dish in a meal along with vegetable and grain side dishes, but tastes light enough with the lemon and coriander accents to make a light summer meal as well. As usual, I've kicked the recipe up a gear with extra chilli peppers, but even so the added heat won't deter anyone from this refreshing zesty soup.

Chickpea, Chili and Coriander Soup

1 cup chickpeas
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon butter
3 large hot chillies, red or green, seeded and finely chopped
6 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
juice and grated zest from one large lemon
handful of fresh coriander, stalks and leaves separated, with the leaves finely chopped
1/4 cup crème fraîche or plain whole-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon sea salt
fresh ground black pepper

To garnish:

1 large hot chili, red or green, seeded and cut into very fine strips
chopped fresh coriander leaves (see above)

Soak the chickpeas overnight in 5 cups of water with a little yogurt whey or lemon juice. Bring to a boil in a large saucepan, then cover and reduce the heat to low, simmering for about 1 1/2 hours until the chickpeas are very tender.

While the chickpeas are cooking, the rest of the ingredients can be measured, cut and prepared. Pre-heat a small frying pan over medium heat and toss in the coriander and cumin seeds. Dry-roast the seeds for 2 or 3 minutes, or until they become aromatic and begin to brown. Remove the seeds into a mortar and crush with a pestle.

Put the frying pan back on low heat and melt in the butter. Add the crushed spices along with the chillies and garlic, and stir-fry for about 5 minutes. Add the turmeric, stir and heat for another minute before removing the pan from the heat. Set aside.

When the chickpeas are cooked, drain them in a colander placed over a large bowl to reserve the cooking liquid. Pour the chickpeas into a blender along with a couple of cups of the cooking liquid, and pureé until smooth. Add in the chilli, garlic and spice mixture from the frying pan along with the lemon zest and coriander stalks, then pureé again until everything is blended and smooth, adding a little more reserved cooking liquid if necessary.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and stir in the rest of the reserved cooking liquid. Bring everything up to a gentle simmer and let it heat gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water if a thinner soup is desired.

Before serving, stir in half the crème fraîche or yogurt, as well as the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning, then serve hot with a spoonful of the rest of the crème fraîche or yogurt swirled into each bowl, and scatter with coriander leaves and fine strips of chilli for garnish. Serves 6.