It’s a cold day in Melbourne today, so there’s nothing better than a delicious & comforting than a bowl of soup for lunch.   This has fast become another favorite of mine.  I tweaked this recipe from one I found on the Thermomix Recipe Community.  I loved the flavours, but the texture was different, as the original recipe pureed the chickpeas into the soup.   I thought I’d have a play with the recipe & leave the chickpeas whole, which I really liked.  You can make a vegetarian version of this by substituting the stock paste from chicken to vegetable.    If you don’t have time to dry roast & mill the spice seeds, see notes at the end of the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes (to taste)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
20g olive oil
500g sweet potato, peeled & roughly chopped
2 carrots
1 tbsp chicken stock paste (or vegetable)
1L water
1 can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
Fresh coriander or natural yoghurt (to serve)

Method:
1) Place dried spices in TM bowl, dry roast for 3 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1 (MC off).   Replace MC, then mill spices 40 seconds/speed 9, set aside.
2) Without cleaning the TM bowl, add onion & garlic. Chop 3 seconds/speed 5.
3) Add oil, cook 3 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1.  Add the reserved spices, cook 1 minute/100 degrees/speed 1.
4) Add sweet potato & carrot. Chop 5 seconds/speed 5.
5) Scrape down sides of bowl, add water & stock, cook 25 minutes/100 degrees/speed 1.
6) Puree the soup for 1 minute/speed 9 (gradually increasing the speed from speed 5 to speed 9).
7) Add drained chickpeas, cook for 5 minutes/100 degrees/reverse/speed 1.
8) Top with coriander & serve.  This is also lovely topped with a tablespoon of natural yoghurt.

 Notes:
 If you’re in a hurry or don’t have spice seeds, you can skip step 1.  Just add 2 tsp ground cumin & 1 tsp ground coriander with the oil in step 3.  This still tastes nice (I’ve made it both ways), but dry roasting & milling the spice seeds, adds much more flavour.