Our friend who used to give us the ice chest load full of vegetables every Monday has moved. He stopped giving us the vegetables a few months back because he stopped doing his farmers market booth. So in preparation for moving, his wife, who is an excellent chef, decided to part with her stack of cook books that she’s acquired over the years. I think in all she gave us around 12 or so, very large cook books.

Among them was The New Soup Bible by Anne Sheasby. This book is quickly becoming my favorite place to turn for recipes to try. I never realized how much I love making soups. And when trying to cook a large meal that we can eat for a few days a soup is perfect.

As my first test of a recipe from this book, I was planning to make a Southern American Succotash Soup with Chicken. So with my camera phone I took a picture of the recipe and went to the store. While we were going around the store gathering up items it dawned on me… This recipe has no chicken or corn. So I took a picture of the wrong soup’s recipe. I laughed about this for a minute and then decided I’d just make the soup I took a picture of, and I’m glad I did, because this soup is amazing, light tasting and simple.

So here is that soup…

INGREDIENTS
(these are slightly modified from what is in the book)

Soup Base:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1lb chicken breasts cut into strips
• 4 garlic cloves crushed
• 1 1/2 tsp plain flour
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Charmoula Butter:

• 1/4 cup butter at room temperature
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 red chili, seeded and chopped
• 1 finely grated lemon rind
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 cup dried breadcrumbs

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Make the soup first. Start by melting the butter in a large pan or pot.
   
2. Add the chicken strips to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes until they begin to brown. Remove the chicken and set aside leaving the butter remaining in the pan.
   
3. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook for 5 minutes until the onions are soft, but not brown.
   
4. Stir in the flour and cook for 4 minutes, stirring constantly until beginning to brown.
   
5. Gradually poor in the chicken stock and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until slightly thickened. I ended up adding a bit more flour at this point also.
   
6. Stir in can of tomatoes.
   
7. Add the chicken back to the soup.
8. Add the garbanzo beans.
   
9. Cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.
10. While the stock is cooking, begin preparing the Charmoula Butter by placing the room temperature butter in a bowl.
11. Beat in the cilantro, garlic, cumin, chili, lemon rind and paprika.
    
12. When the mixture is well combined stir in the breadcrumbs.
    

To serve this dish: Ladle the soup into bowls and then take one medium to large size spoonful of the butter and place in the center and let it melt for a few seconds. You may also want to serve this with lemon wedges and some bread.

This soup is amazing. The charmoula butter is so good. I ended up doubling this recipe and Deanna and I had it for 5 days I think. I had extra charmoula butter so I wound up freezing the rest of it.

If you have a favorite soup recipe that you like we’d love to hear it, so leave a comment or shoot us an email.

Thanks!