Maison Cupcake

The Sweet Life At Home

  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Journal
    • Classes and Events
  • Misc
    • Oui Love France
    • Love The Stow
    • Party Food Ideas
    • Family Food Ideas
Home » Spicy chickpea soup and coriander chapatti

Spicy chickpea soup and coriander chapatti

December 9, 2009 by Sarah / Maison Cupcake

 

 

They say that when you attend any courses or training for work purposes that you only absorb about 10% of what you hear.  If this is true, at Food Blogger Connect last week, one of the messages I took home from Meeta of What’s For Lunch Honey? was the importance of paying attention to styling food photos.

Meeta is a self-confessed prop-tart (not to be confused with Pop Tart). She is constantly on the look out for items that can be used in food photos even blagging bits of carpet from workmen to lay her food upon in shoots.

When we had finished dinner at the Natural Kitchen with some other folks from Food Blogger Connect on our Sunday trip to Marylebone, one move from Meeta to the dispenser of rustic disposable wooden cutlery accompanied by the words, “you can dye these and tie ribbons round them,” had everyone sneaking their hands into the pot with such excitement they forgot to be clandestine about it. The waiter raised an eyebrow, we almost cleaned them out of wooden forks and spoons, but hey, we’d been good customers and they were going to get twelve food bloggers chirping about what a great time they’d had eating there.

Meeta’s blog is home to an online food blogger get together called Monthly Mingle.  This month’s mingle is hosted by Harini of Tongue Ticklers.

So it is with Meeta in mind that I set up the photos of my soup today.  I set up some gold voile material as a diffused background, tied some raffia around my spoon, carefully ironed an orange napkin and laid a textured place mat underneath.  Then I discovered what a pain soup is to photograph.  I started dishing it up downstairs with the intention of carrying it to my back bedroom (my new found best light – thanks also to Meeta’s talk at Food Blogger Connect) but quickly realised that the soup would slosh around in the bowl on the journey upstairs leaving a messy orange ring.  Instead I decanted the soup carefully, spoon by spoon, into the bowl in situe.  The chapatti were delicately placed next to the bowl with me not daring to move them incase they left flour on the napkin.  A lot goes into this styling stuff I’m discovering.

Maison Cupcake Emma Bridgewater Give Away

The recipe follows below but whilst I’ve got your attention….*trumpeting fanfare*……

 

 

 

 

There’s still time for you to enter the Maison Cupcake Emma Bridgewater Give Away.
Click here to enter.
Hungry Caterpillars Alert!
A bit of news before I go.  I’ve been asked to make a cake representing one of these:
It will be the first cake I’ve made for a stranger so although I’m having a Susan Jeffer’s Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway moment at the same time I know there’s nothing involved that I can’t do so I’m also excited.  I can’t wait to show you the pictures when it is done.
Enough! Time for the soup course!

 

 

This soup is based on a chickpea curry in Anjum Anand’s first, and in my opinion, best book, “Indian Every Day”. I frequently take the title to heart and spend a week cooking curries for several nights in a row.
Everything I know about making curry I owe to this book.  I bought it over five years ago before she had a television series and during this time I have cooked about 70% of the dishes found in its pages.  I was about to say I’m not being paid to say this but that’s not entirely true – if you purchase one of her books from Amazon using the links below I apparently get sent enough money to buy a few grains of rice but take it from me, her first book is excellent.
The chickpea curry is one of my favourites as it is totally store cupboard ingredients, is healthy (like most of her recipes) and can be made in around 20 minutes.  It is my favourite dish to make on nights my husband is out for the evening and I can curl up on sofa watching my favourite tv shows that he doesn’t like.  I have tweaked the ingredients from the version in the book to items that I find quicker and easier to work with.  It was only my second time making chapattis (or should that be chapatti? someone tell me…) but they are dead easy. If you can make pastry you’ll find chapattis a doddle.

 

 

Adapted from Anjum Anand’s Chickpea Curry from Indian Every Day

Ingredients for the soup:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 heaped tsp chopped ginger (I use lazy stuff in jars… I have a toddler to deal with)

1 heaped tsp crushed garlic (ditto)

1/2 tsp tumeric powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

400g can of chopped tomatoes (Anjum says do your own tomatoes but so far as I’m aware she doesn’t have a toddler)

2 tbsp of shop bought curry paste, I use Patak’s Balti paste (Anjum says make your own etc etc)

600ml vegetable stock

400g can chickpeas, drained

1 tsp chaat masala powder from Indian food store

2 good pinches each of garam masala, chilli powder, black pepper, cumin.

Salt to taste

Handful of chopped coriander

Method for soup:

Heat your oil in a large saucepan, add the cumin seeds and cook for a few seconds.  Stir in the ginger, garlic, tumeric and coriander powders and cook for further 30 seconds.  Stir in your chopped tomato, curry paste and 200mls only of the stock, saving the rest of the liquid for later.  Bring to the boil and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add the chickpeas, cover and simmer for 6 minutes.  Get a hand stick blender and cup and decant half a blender cupful of the mixture (approximately 250ml worth), blend and stir back into the pan adding the remaining ingredients. These last spices will thicken the mix considerably, if you want you can serve this the way Anjum intended as a curry with rice but for soup you will be adding your final 400mls of stock.  Blend more or less of the chickpeas according to whatever texture you would like your soup to be.  Serve hot with coriander sprinkled on top.  I also like a blob of yogurt on mine but didn’t have any to hand when I took the picture.

Ingredients for the Coriander Chapatti, adapted from Anjum Anand’s Indian Food Made Easy:

150g chapatti flour (or half whole wheat and half plain flours)

1 heaped tsp coriander powder

Pinch of salt

90-110ml water

Method for the Coriander Chapatti:

Sift the flour and salt into a medium size bowl and make a well in the centre. Drizzle 3/4 of your water and mix drawing flour into the centre. It should be slightly sticky.

Knead for around 10 minutes and then leave in a covered bowl in a warm place for 30 minutes. After the time has passed, divide the dough into six golf balls. Flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll each golf ball into thin circles around 12.5 to 15cm across.

Heat a non-stick frying pan until quite hot. Toss the chapatti from one hand to the other to shake away any excess flour and place in the hot pan until small bubbles and brown spots appear on underside. Anjum says this takes 20-30 seconds but in my experience it’s more like 90 seconds. Turn the chapatti over and cook on the other side for a similar length of time. It should puff up nicely.  Keep warm until ready to serve by wrapping in a napkin or clean tea towel.

Makes six 15cm wide chapatti.

Filed Under: Family Food Ideas Tagged With: blog events, Bread, Bread and Pastries, family meals, Middle Eastern, soups, vegetarian

About Sarah / Maison Cupcake

Sarah has published recipes on Maison Cupcake since 2009 and lives in London.
Read More/Contact

« Giveaway: bag yourself an Emma Bridgewater gift
Mince pie macarons »

Comments

  1. tspegar says

    December 9, 2009 at 12:47 am

    my goodness that looks like you put so much effort into it. delicious.

  2. Gourmet Chick says

    December 9, 2009 at 1:01 am

    This soup looks brilliant – perfect winter food

  3. Chow and Chatter says

    December 9, 2009 at 1:03 am

    fab soup and your picture with props is awesome also i just made chappati!

  4. Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

    December 9, 2009 at 1:10 am

    Thanks everyone, I can't believe I got 3 comments within about 20 minutes! Glad you like the soup and photos.

  5. Jamie says

    December 9, 2009 at 8:47 am

    Wow! Great soup and Chapatti! I must make. And I think your food styling is stunning and the photo is just gorgeous! You are way better than I am! And that sack is fabulous!

  6. Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

    December 9, 2009 at 8:49 am

    @jamie Arr you are too kind, I am but taking baby steps in styling! I desperately wanted to move that chapatti but couldn't because of the flour it would leave underneath and there wasn't time to iron another one before I picked up my son from pre-school.

  7. Mowie says

    December 9, 2009 at 9:33 am

    That looks lovely – perfect for winter! And I *love* the very hungry caterpillar! Can't wait to see the photos.

  8. MaryMoh says

    December 9, 2009 at 9:47 am

    wow…that soup makes me really hungry now. Looks VERY delicious. Brilliant….you made your own chapati. I would also like it with paratha. A beautiful, healthy vegetarian meal.

  9. MeetaK says

    December 9, 2009 at 9:50 am

    Oh Sarah! I could hug you! I feel so humbled after reading your post and also proud to see you put what I said to great use. The soup looks awesome. I love everything chickpea!

  10. The Cooking Ninja says

    December 9, 2009 at 10:03 am

    Looking at the ingredients for your soup, it sounds so so yummy and comforting. The kind of soup I like to have on a cold or rainy day.

    Love your prop idea. Guess I missed out on the wooden spoon n fork that day. Zut!

  11. Happy cook says

    December 9, 2009 at 11:44 am

    Coudn't be there in FBC, what i missed on a lot os Meeta's photography talk. I so wish I could hear her talking aobut it as i love all her pics.
    Love chickpea and chapthies, a wonderful combo.

  12. Sunshinemom says

    December 9, 2009 at 11:50 am

    Hey Sarah, just a coincidence! We too had chickpea soup for lunch, only we had it with pasta:). Yours looks very delicious and your chapati has puffed up beautifully! Thanks for sending this to the mingle:)

  13. Heavenly Housewife says

    December 9, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    What a fabulous and warming soup!. And wow, you made your own chapatis? I am super impressed.

  14. Rambling Tart says

    December 9, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    Well done!! 🙂 You did a beautiful job and now I'm absolutely craving chapatis 🙂

  15. Kitchen Butterfly says

    December 9, 2009 at 9:28 pm

    Oh….WOW Sar, good job with the soup and the puffy chapati rocks!

  16. Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

    December 9, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    @ Mowie, the caterpillar will crack out of his chrysalis on Saturday so watch out for him next week
    @Mary Moh, I've not made parathas but I should try
    @MeetaK (((((hug back))))
    @cookingninja, Zut! is one of my favourite French words
    @Happy Cook – make sure you come to FBC10, it's going to be even better
    @sunshinemom looking forward to seeing the other minglers
    @heavenly housewife Try making them, as I say, if you can do pastry it's a cinch
    @rambling tart Thank you!
    @kitchenbutterfly "puffy chapatti rocks" sounds like a new name for P Diddy, are you going to tell him or shall I?

  17. Rosa's Yummy Yums says

    December 9, 2009 at 11:35 pm

    A lovely soup! Great combo and flavors!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

  18. Amanda says

    December 13, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    The soup looks wonderful, I bet it was delish!

Trackbacks

  1. Fresh herb & tapenade flatbreads by how to cook good food says:
    March 28, 2014 at 11:32 am

    […] CORIANDER CHAPATTI by Maison Cupcake […]

  2. Recipe: Easy Coconut Roti - Fuss Free Flavours says:
    June 16, 2014 at 11:17 am

    […] Sarah’s Chickpea Soup with Coriander Chapatti […]

About Sarah / Maison Cupcake

Sarah has published recipes on Maison Cupcake since 2009 and lives in London.
Read More/Contact

Follow Sarah / Maison Cupcake

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100


 

© 2009-2021 Sarah Trivuncic

All content copyright of site owner
Sarah Trivuncic except where otherwise stated. All rights reserved. Neither images or text may be reproduced without permission. Privacy / Disclosure

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT