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Galician Garbanzo Soup

A hearty chickpea soup from Galicia with vegetables, spices, and tomato.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Galician Garbanzo Soup

Serves 6
Total1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse and thoroughly drain garbanzo beans.

  2. Place about ⅔ of them in a blender or food processor with 2 cups of broth and/or water, and purée until mostly smooth. Set aside.

Make the soup

  1. Place a soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat and wait for about a minute, then add olive oil and swirl to coat the pan.

  2. Add onion and sauté over medium heat for about 5–8 minutes, or until onion is translucent.

  3. Add half the garlic plus the potato, carrot, and celery and about ⅛ teaspoon salt, and sauté over medium-low heat for 5 to 8 minutes.

  4. Add garbanzo purée, plus remaining broth and/or water and garbanzo beans, and the bay leaf, mustard, cumin, and saffron.

  5. Bring to boil, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the remaining garlic, plus the peas, vinegar, and tomato.

  2. Taste to correct salt. Add black pepper and cayenne.

  3. Simmer for only about 5 minutes longer.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

474Calories
13 gProtein
16 gFat
76 gCarbs

Counts 16 of 19 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 16 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Beannot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Saffronnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Garbanzo beans
Form the body of the soup; puréed portion thickens it while whole beans add texture.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the soup's base flavor.
Potato
Its starch helps thicken the broth and give it body.
Red wine vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the earthy beans and balances the flavors.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity, moisture and savory depth to the broth.
Olive oil
Carries flavor from the aromatics and adds richness.

The step that matters

Purée only part of the beans. Blending about two-thirds of the beans releases starch and creates a thick, creamy base, while the reserved whole beans keep some texture. Blending all of them would make the soup pasty.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, olive, onion, garlic, potato, celery, mustard):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, olive, onion, garlic, potato, celery, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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