Chickpea and Cavatelli Soup

The family really liked this chickpea and cavatelli soup because it reminded them of stuffing, and we all love stuffing. The taste is good, but I thought it needed the cheese to give it a little bite. It probably needs a splash of lemon juice to brighten it up.

However, the base is good, and for a soup, that’s often the most important thing. I could see adding spinach or other ingredients. I didn’t add the last of the chickpeas when I added the soup and pasta. Instead, I waited until the last 2 minutes of cooking and then added the chickpeas.

By the end of the meal, the pasta had absorbed more broth, so when reheating leftovers, I’ll add more broth.

This chickpea and cavatelli soup is a wonderfully homey dish, halfway between pasta and soup. It is also a recipe that can be very flexible, depending on the amount of time you have.

As written, it’s a super-quick, filling, flavorful, and healthy vegetarian dish, a perfect pantry dish for a weeknight dinner—but you won’t feel like you’ve just thrown something onto the table.

The pureed chickpeas and vegetables are rich and filling, and the pasta, cooked in the soup, thickens it considerably.

If you had some time on your hands and wanted to take it up a notch, you could use dried chickpeas that you cooked yourself and use the chickpea broth or homemade chicken stock (for a delicious non-vegetarian version) in place of the vegetable broth.

You could also use water in a pinch, but I personally would then be inclined to smash a whole garlic clove and saute it along with the vegetables for maximum flavor. I used 4 cups of Pacific Organic Vegetable broth, 1 cup of liquid from the chickpeas, and 1 cup of water.

From the first bite to the last, this chickpea and cavatelli soup was phenomenal! And incredibly easy to make. I got great results by following the directions to the letter.

I usually like my soups to have some “chew factor” with lots of chunky vegetables, but the half can of chickpeas and the cavatelli pasta took care of that particular craving.

For anyone trying this recipe, please do not skip the parsley and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano when serving. I believe this was the most important step of all and really made the rest of the flavors pop. All combined, the ingredients yield something so yummy it will have you smiling with each bite.

I used enough fresh rosemary to yield 1/2 teaspoon chopped. Usually recipes taste simply “okay” on leftover day. I can honestly say this is not the case for this chickpea and cavatelli soup. This recipe held up from dinner to lunch and dinner again (single ladies rock!). This recipe yields just the right amount—for a single person, it makes enough meals to last two or three days.

It’s also the perfect dinner for two with leftovers for lunch the next day. (I must admit, before this recipe, I’d never eaten a chickpea before and had a difficult time even finding a can of chickpeas at the grocery store. Thank goodness for Google! After a quick online search, I headed home with a can of garbanzo beans—aka chickpeas. I figured I wouldn’t like the recipe, but I was oh so wrong!)

It’s 80°F with sunny skies and low humidity where I am, and I can’t believe what I just ate for lunch. I had a very large bowl of chickpea and cavatelli soup. I gotta admit that I really enjoyed it. I keep homemade chicken stock on hand at all times and used it but I think it would be equally good with a vegetarian broth.

The recipe is straightforward and easy. It took 15 minutes of active time and 35 minutes total time. Always nice to cook things that require no additional grocery shopping as all of the ingredients could be on hand. I think this soup would be enhanced with the addition of a Parmesan rind during cooking to add another flavor layer. (I always keep rinds in the freezer for just this sort of thing.)

An immersion blender makes easy work of puréeing this soup and I do like that some of the chickpeas are left whole to add texture to the end product.

I used 1 sprig of rosemary and got 1 tablespoon chopped leaves. The rosemary didn’t really shine through using one sprig—I think it’s an herb that needs to be added incrementally and tasted along the way so that it doesn’t overwhelm the finished product.

The soup was delicious, and the puréed chickpeas gave it a wonderful mouthfeel. My sprig of rosemary measured 2 teaspoons, and it was just enough without overpowering the soup. It was very good.

I added 1/2 cup more stock to thin the soup. The only thing I might do differently next time is use half fermented chickpeas and half regular—put the fermented chickpeas in with the puréed part and the regular chickpeas with the pasta.

Good recipe!

At first glance, I thought this recipe seemed like it would be rather bland, like just another pasta and bean soup. I received a last-minute invitation to visit friends for the weekend, so I packed up the ingredients to cook while I was there.

I followed the directions without much variation from the recipe. It was delicious, and it served 6 people, with the last person scraping the bottom of the pan. I think puréeing the soup early in the cooking is what made the difference—it was creamy, and the flavor of the rosemary wasn’t overpowering.

It was a hit with adults and children alike.

This is definitely a Testers Choice recipe. It only takes 45 minutes of hands-on time from start to finish. Once the pasta was added, it was perfectly cooked in 8 minutes.

(Remember, the only way to know if your pasta is done correctly is to taste it since brands vary in the amount of time, and it does make a difference in this recipe if you are using freshly made, fresh frozen, or dry pasta.)

You can adjust the amount of rosemary to your taste. I started with 1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary and then added about another half tablespoon for a total of 2 sprigs. We felt that the rosemary flavor was rather faint, and the next time I will probably add 3 sprigs.

This chickpea and cavatelli soup is a simple yet earthy dish that’s perfect for a weeknight meal. Alternatively, it can be prepared on the weekend with a bit of planning if you want to use home-cooked chickpeas. Hearty enough to serve as a single-dish dinner, it can also work nicely as a smaller serving for a beginning course.

The subtle presence of rosemary complements the pasta and chickpeas beautifully, enhanced by a finishing touch of Parmesan. When preparing the soup, I added the stock gradually to deglaze the pan. Since I had cooked a batch of chickpeas from scratch the morning before, I used a mixture of chickpea liquor and vegetable stock for the liquid—2 cups of chickpea liquor combined with 4 cups of vegetable stock.

As a main course, this soup served four people (or two people for two days in a row). I thinned it with additional stock when reheating, and I plan to make it again with an extra cup of stock for a slightly lighter consistency. I used Sardinians (Gnocchetti Sardi) Organic Spelt by Baia Pasta, creating a satisfying combination of chickpeas and pasta.

This was my very first time using cavatelli and the soup was very easy to make. Cavatelli seems to be a dense pasta that adds a lot to the soup.

Overall, the sweet onion flavor is what I tasted and enjoyed the most. I’ve always loved vegetable soups and this one is different from others. We ate some roasted chicken and toasted bread on the side which made a wonderful meal.