We’ve tried a couple of variations of this soup. This version is basically a crossbreed between a recipe that was in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about three years ago, and various chick pea soup recipes from the excellent Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & Africa by Habeeb Salloum. This is what we used:

• 5 dl dried chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 small leeks, chopped to matchsticks
• 3 teaspoons vegetable stock powder
• 2 potatoes, boiled and cubed
• 1 liter water
• 5 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin (jeera)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• some freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt or according to taste
• 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice

About one hour before cooking, we put the chickpeas in a bowl, and filled it with boiling water. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you should soak the chick peas overnight. We put the cooker over medium-high heat and heated the olive oil. We then fried the chopped leek and sliced garlic for a couple of minutes, stirring frequenty so that the garlic wouldn’t burn. Next, we poured in the water and the chickpeas and added the vegetable stock powder, covered the cooker, and cooked on high pressure for 2o minutes. Then we lowered the pressure, added the cubed potatoes, cilantro, cumin and paprika, and cooked on low pressure for 10 minutes more. If you’re not using a pressure cooker, you’d probably need to cook the chick peas about for an hour, and then add the spices and potatoes, and simmer maybe 15 minutes more.

Now, we took the cooker off the heat, lowered the pressure, and used our immersion blender to purée the soup. Then we added the salt, lemon juice and black pepper. I guess this goes without saying, but at this point sample the taste, adding salt, pepper or lemon juice as you see (or taste) fit.

We served the soup sprinkled with chili and cumin and topped off with a liberal splash of olive oil. These are essential! Also have a few extra slices of lemon handy, which can be squeezed on top of the serving according to taste.

Ground cumin (also known as jeera, geerah, kamoon), crushed red chili, and red paprika powder, with some frozen cilantro on the background.

Chickpea Croquettes:

• 1 can (400 g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1,2 dl frozen peas
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1,5 dl wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons egg replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons water (or other replacer for 2 eggs)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (or cilantro, which was out of stock in the shops close by)
• canola oil for frying

First, we mixed wheat flour with baking soda. Then we just placed all the ingredients in a bowl and processed with a hand held mixer until the batter was completely smooth.

Now, Heikki filled a thick wok pan with canola oil, about 4 cm thick layer of it. Then, he spooned the dough by heaping spoonfuls into the oil, and let them fry until golden brown.

Here, croquettes are at different stages of goldness. They need to be turned over once to fry the other side as well. Habeeb Salloum advices that if the croquettes break up in the oil, more flour should be added, but Heikki had no such problems.

After frying, we drained the croquettes on paper towels, and then served with bulgur pilaf, ginger yogurt sauce and tomato relish. This batch made about 22 croquettes.

Bulgur Pilaf:

In his introduction to this recipe, Habeeb Salloum writes that “[burghul] can be employed in every course and in every meal of the day”. This is the way it is cooked in Lebanon and Syria.

This amount is enough for four, but we only cooked a 3/4 portion, and still had enough leftovers for the lunch next day.

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2,4 dl whole wheat bulgur (or burghul)
• 5 dl water
• salt and pepper to taste

Heikki heated oil in a frying pan and fried the bulgur over medium heat for 3 minutes. then, he stirred in water, salt, and freshly ground black pepper, brought everything to a boil, and covered with a lid. Bulgur was cooked for 25 minutes, and then allowed to steam, covered, until the croquettes were done.

Yogurt Sauce:

• 1,2 dl plain soy yogurt
• 4 tablespoons finely ground almonds, toasted
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
• 1/2 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Tomato Mint Relish:

• 2 medium tomatoes, finely cubed
• 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (or other hot chili sauce)
• 1 teaspoon dried mint

I thoroughly combined the ingredients for each dish and served immediately.