It's a process

I try new recipes all the time and I found this recipe on Saveur.com for Garbanzos and it turned out OK, but not great. It was very similar to another recipe from Saveur that I have been making for years and I've decided that is the one to stick with - with a couple additions to marry the two! So here is a picture of last night's, and a recipe for a better one! The perfecting process continues...

Barcelona Chickpea Soup serves 4-6

1/4 cup olive oil

1 onion chopped

1 red pepper chopped

5 cloves of garlic chopped

1 bay leaf

3 oz prosciutto or Serrano ham chopped

6 oz spanish chorizo diced (it's the firmer one)

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 teaspoon spanish smoked paprika

1/3 cup dry white wine

4 cups cooked chickpeas (I used dried, soaked them overnight and cooked for about an hour, but you can just use canned)

a couple handfuls of fresh spinach

4 hard boiled eggs quartered

Saute the onion, pepper and garlic in the oil on low until soft, about 20 min. Add the prosciutto, chorizo and saute a few min. then add the tomato paste (I sometimes use roasted tomatoes that I have in the freezer chopped up as they are rich tasting) and paprika and let cook a few more min. Add the wine and cook until it evaporates. Then add 6 cups of water and the bay leaf and simmer this for about 35 min. Finally add the chickpeas to heat through and s&p to taste. To serve put a small handful of spinach in each bowl and top with the soup so it just lightly cooks it then place some of the hard boiled egg on top and drizzle with olive oil. Serve with toast of course!

The big differences between the 2 recipes: the chorizo was sliced into thick rounds and I like the diced in the other better and it also had potatoes cooked into the stew - which actually might be nice in this soup so feel free to add a couple peeled and quartered russets when you add the water - this added a nice thickness to the soup making it more stew-like. The addition of the spinach and eggs really makes it different too.