When I want something comforting like a soup, but I also want something special, I make Tomato, Chickpea & Orzo Soup With Pistachio Pesto. It’s beautiful to look at, full of healthy ingredients, bursting with flavour and has a lot of textures that make eating it interesting and exciting. It’s also vegetarian, so it’s perfect to serve when my friends who don’t eat meat come to dinner.
If you have a food processor or a chopper attachment for your stick blender, the pesto part of this recipe is super easy to put together. If you don’t have these things, you could try a blender or maybe try bashing it all up by hand somehow – it’s not important that it looks perfect. The beauty of this soup is in its rustic presentation. You could also just skip the pistachio pesto altogether, substitute with store-bought pesto from a jar or simply serve with some grated Parmesan cheese sprinkled over the soup.
I encourage you to use the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford when making this soup. It will make a difference. Because you aren’t cooking most of the oil in this recipe, the flavours will shine in the pesto and drizzled atop the soup at the end so reach for the good stuff if you’re able to. Let’s get started!
Ingredients
For the Soup
- 1 echalion shallot
- 2 celery sticks
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Zest & juice of 1 lemon
- Pinch of dried chilli flakes
- 150g orzo pasta
- 400g tin of chickpeas, drained & rinsed
- 1 jar passata (usually about 700g)
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar (optional)
- 700ml vegetable stock (you can also use chicken stock)
- Salt & pepper
- Extra virgin olive oil for serving
For the Pistachio Pesto
- 100g shelled pistachios
- 150ml extra virgin olive oil
- 80g parmesan cheese, grated
- Handful of fresh basil leaves (about 15g)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
- Generous grinding of fresh black pepper
Method
- Finely chop the shallot, celery and garlic. I like to do this using a chopper attachment with my stick blender, but you can do it by hand, with a mezzaluna or in a food processor.
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large stock pot with a lid that will fit everything later. Add the chopped vegetables along with the dried chilli flakes and cook, stirring until softened. Once it’s soft, add the lemon zest and cook while continuously stirring for another minute.
- Stir in the orzo and toss it around in the pan until it’s coated with everything. Then pour in the drained & rinsed chickpeas and stir again to combine.
- Pour in the passata and then swill some water in the jar to coax out the dregs and add that to the pot, followed by the stock, the caster sugar and the lemon juice. Stir to combine.
- Increase the heat to high and season with salt & pepper. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and pop on the lid. Cook for about 12 minutes or until the pasta is al dente, stirring once or twice as it cooks.
- While the soup is bubbling away, it’s time to make the pistachio pesto. In the bowl of a food processor or a chopper attachment for a stick blender add all of the pesto ingredients and whiz it up until it’s chopped finely and thoroughly mixed into a beautiful, bright green paste.
- Before serving, taste the soup to check the seasoning and the firmness of the pasta. If necessary, cook a little longer or adjust the seasoning.
- To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, dribble some of the pistachio pesto over top and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
