What We Ate Wednesday-- Cheesy Chickpea and White Bean Soup with Bacon Mushrooms

Hello lovelies! As I said last week I was revisiting cookbooks and looking for recipes that we had not tried. I saw this one which was labelled as a kid friendly recipe and thought we would like it. I hadn't intended to try it quite so soon, but I had run out of a crucial ingredient for another meal and then forgot to go to the shops to replace it, so it was squeaky bum time when it came to cook dinner.

Did I panic? Only slightly. But then I remembered this soup recipe and thought "We have everything in the pantry!" so I decided to make it.

I had 100g button mushrooms languishing in the fridge, so I thought "Why not make bacon mushrooms to throw on top?" 

This is adapted from a recipe from Dreena Burton's cookbook Let Them Eat Vegan. I left out the celery and the bay leaf as tiggers don't like them.

I would *highly* recommend you check out her cookbooks. The earlier ones are more budget friendly, the later ones use more nuts and expensive maple syrup than we can afford, but they are still great cookbooks.

Cheesy Chickpea and White Bean Soup with Bacon Mushrooms
Preheat your oven to 220C/425F.
Start by marinating your mushrooms for the bacon mushrooms in  a small bowl.

Marinade:
100g button mushrooms, thinly sliced (about 5 mushrooms) 
1 TB tamari or soy sauce
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Then work on getting your soup ingredients ready.

The soup:
1 onion, diced
half a carrot, diced (gives it a lovely orange colour)
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 a tsp dried rosemary
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tin white beans (I used haricot, but navy or cannellini beans would work), drained and rinsed
2.5 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup unsweetened non dairy milk
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 TB lemon juice

In a large pot over medium high heat, cook the onion, carrot and garlic in a splash of oil or water.

When they have started to soften add your salt, basil, rosemary and stir to coat.

Add the beans and the vegetable stock, bring to the boil and then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile make your bacon mushrooms. Line a large roasting pan with parchment paper and using a slotted spoon, remove the mushrooms (SAVE THAT MARINADE!) and lay them in a flat layer and bake for 12-15 minutes. They will shrink and dry up and concentrate in flavour. When they come out of the oven, just set aside to cool.

When the soup has simmered for 15 minutes, add the reserved marinade, milk, nutritional yeast and lemon juice. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup. She suggested super smooth for picky kids, we left ours a bit chunky. Then reheat on low until piping hot.

Serve the golden, cheesy soup with a spoonful of bacon mushrooms on the top.

This really ticks that umami box I talked about a few months ago. It was delicious and was made from things we *always* have on hand. It will definitely become part of the winter soup rotation.