Pasta & Chickpea Soup with Cheesy Toasts

This pasta & chickpea soup is a filling dinner especially topped with these incredible cheesy toasts. Add a sprinkling of parmesan for a burst of flavour!

I’ve been obsessing about making soup lately. Although, hasn’t everyone? There’s been a million and one recipes for soup on the internet over the past few days and I’m adding a delicious one to the mix today.

As I’ve mentioned before soup is a bit of an awkwardness in our house because Will doesn’t believe it to be a proper dinner. It’s normally lacking the adequate meat and carbs to convince Will that he’ll be satisfied by it. So when I do make a soup it has to be really extra good to trick Will into thinking it’s not just a soup but a dinner worthy soup.

This sometimes means adding a healthy portion of meat or, in this case, adding lots of carbs and cheese. Which works out well because carbs and cheese are my life. To make something really comforting I went for pasta & chickpea soup which, as you can imagine, is super filling and is basically like eating a hug.

Now I could have stopped there and it probably would have been perfectly tasty and Will might have even been satisfied. But I couldn’t get cheese out of my head. I wanted cheesy garlic toasts which got all chewy on the bottom from soaking in the soup and they turned out even better than I imagined.

Another brilliant thing about this pasta & chickpea soup? It makes fantastic leftovers. Which is vital for me because I need nice lunches to get me through the day. There’s nothing worse than a long morning at work without something tasty to look forward to at lunchtime.

This soup will make your lunchtimes and dinnertimes shine. Trust me.

5 from 5 votes

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Pasta & Chickpea Soup with Cheesy Toasts

This pasta & chickpea soup is a filling dinner especially topped with these incredible cheesy toasts. Add a sprinkling of parmesan for a burst of flavour!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Calories 572 kcal

Author Amy

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Medium Onion chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic chopped
• Salt and Pepper
• 3 tbsp Tomato Puree
• Pinch of Chilli Flakes add more to taste
• 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
• 1 tsp Dried Oregano
• 2 400 g tins Chopped Tomatoes
• 500 ml Vegetable Stock
• 100 g Pasta I used shells but you can use which short cut shape you fancy
• 1 400 g tin Chickpeas drained

For the Cheese Toasts

• 1 French Baguette
• 100 g Cheddar Cheese grated
• 2 cloves Garlic chopped

To Serve

• Fresh Parsley chopped
• Parmesan finely grated

Instructions

1. Heat your olive oil over a medium heat and gently sweat the onion and garlic with a good helping of salt and pepper until translucent, about five minutes.
2. Add the tomato puree, chilli flakes, smoked paprika and oregano and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock. Cover and allow to cook for 15 minutes over medium heat. At this point, preheat the oven to 200°C.
3. Remove the lid and give everything a good stir. Tip in the pasta and chickpeas. At this point you may need to add a little more stock if it is looking dry. I don't like particularly brothy soups so I was happy with it being quite thick but if you're looking for something a bit more liquidy then add more stock until you get the consistency you like. Cover again and leave to cook until the pasta is just cooked, about 10 minutes.
4. While the soup is finishing cooking slice or rip the baguette into 10cm chunks. Place on a baking tray, sprinkle each with some chopped garlic and place in the oven for 2 minutes. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with some grated cheddar and return to the oven until the cheese is melted and starting to brown. Serve the soup topped with the cheesy toasts and sprinkling of parmesan and parsley.

WONDERING WHAT TO DO WITH THE LEFTOVER INGREDIENTS YOU’VE GOT FROM MAKING THIS PASTA & CHICKPEA SOUP WITH CHEESY TOASTS?

If you’re anything like me then you’re always looking for ways to save money and avoid food waste so I want to make sure you’ve get plenty of ideas on how to use up any ingredients that are leftover from my recipes!

Use up the chickpeas in this duck tagine with chickpeas and butternut squash, another perfect winter dinner!

Use up the baguette to make this incredible Korean pork banh mi!