Chunky Chickpea and Herb Dumpling Soup

Serves: 4
Preparation: 30 min
Cooking: 30 mins
Calories: 1688cal (422cal per serve as per recipe)

Ingredients
1 Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
2 Tspn Ground Cumin
1 tspn Ground Coriander
1/4 tspn Chilli Powder
2 x 300g cans Chickpeas
2 x 425g cans Chopped Tomatoes
3.5 cups Vegetable Stock
1 tblspn Chopped Coriander

1 Cup SR Flour
25g Butter
2 tblspn Grated Parmesan
2 tblspn Mixed Chopped Herbs (eg chives, flat leaf parsley, coriander)
1/4 Cup Milk

Chop and cook onion over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
Add garlic, cumin, ground coriander and chilli and cook until fragrant.
Add chickpeas, stock and tomato.
Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer covered for 10 minutes then stir in coriander. (make dumplings while waiting)

Rub butter into flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Stir in cheese and fresh herbs. Add milk and mix until just combined.
Bring together into a ball then divide into 8 portions and roll into small balls.

Add dumplings to the soup, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into centre of dumplings.


Notes
I've substituted the parmesan for tasty cheese. I've also done lots of combinations of herbs in the dumplings. They are best with fresh herbs, but dry chives and parsley is great too.
This recipe is from "Delicious Vegetarian Food" Family Circle cook book and is a big favourite.

Minestrone Soup

Serves: 4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 35 minutes
Calories*: 1200cal total (400cal per serve)

Ingredients
3 rashers of Bacon (optional)
2 Carrots
2 sticks of Celery
1 Potato
2 cloves of Garlic, crushed
1L Vegetable Stock
1 tin Red Kidney Beans
1 can Chopped Tomatoes
1/2-1 cup of Pasta
Parsley (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste (you won't need salt if you added bacon)

Add bacon, vegetables and garlic to pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes and stock, bring to boil and cook until vegetables stoft. If you have a pressure cooker you can speed up the cooking time here to about 30 minutes and the result is amazing!

Once vegetables are soft add pasta (I used 1 cup) and cook for a further 3-5 minutes until pasta is al dente. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with crusty bread.

Notes on Pressure Cookers:
A pressure cooker really speeds up the process with these types of meals and they're actually really easy to use. You must have a good amount of liquid for it to work properly which makes soups ideal.

Bring the ingredients to a boil, secure the pressure cooker lid and turn stove to medium. Wait until the indicators show the cooker is pressurised (refer your cookers instructions, mine is to the second line), then turn stove to low and cook for required time. The longer you cook the food the more likely the vegetables will turn to mush, so 30 minutes is good for a soup like this, but you can go longer if you want a pasta sauce for example.

Be careful when releasing the pressure from the cooker. Don't remove the lid straight away - allow the cooker to cool or run under cold water. Open the release and let all the steam escape. If you try to take off the lid too soon you may end up with the soup exploding over the counter (which happened to me lol) or worse, over you, so be patient getting that lid off!