This healthy vegetable chickpea stew (chickpea soup) is the ultimate winter-warming comfort food recipe. Jam-packed with a rainbow of vegetables to keep your body healthy, this vegan stew is gluten-free, paleo and delicious.
First, chop the harder veggies - aubergines, courgettes, onion, garlic, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli. I kept them very chunky - but you can chop them finer if preferred.
Brush them with some olive oil and roast them in the oven at 175ºC for about 15-25 minutes. I like the additional flavour roasting the vegetables adds to the dish. Certain veggies can be boiled in with the stewing liquid though - like the potatoes, carrots etc.
Pro tip: separate the veggies in two trays - all the harder ones on one tray, the rest on the other. The softer veg would cook faster, so then you can take it out of the oven sooner.
In the meantime, chop the rest of the ingredients - the bell peppers, the celery.
Place the water in the pan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Add the bell peppers, celery, green beans and mangetout peas.
Add the chickpeas and tomato paste. Stir and simmer for 10-15 minutes. This allows the veggies to soften.
Then add the freshly roasted veggies into the pot. Stir and simmer for another 5-8 minutes then serve immediately.
Keep any leftovers kept in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
This stew recipe can also help you save money/ reduce waste by using all your leftover veggies to create this vegetable stew and then freezing it into portions.
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Notes
How to change this recipe depending on what you want:With the above section having been mentioned, you can probably see that this recipe is a lot closer to a soup than a stew because of the large amount of liquid 'broth'. For a heartier vegetable stew-like dish, there are a few adjustments you can make. One of the easiest adjustments is to use less liquid and/or blend or mash some of the chickpeas so that it's thicker. You could also choose to cook more of the vegetables within the actual stewing liquid - like the carrots and potatoes. These would then soften a lot more as they cook and break down slightly, for a thicker 'stew'. Note* As you can tell, I roughly chopped all the vegetables for this healthy vegetable chickpea stew into very chunky bits. If you'd like them to be smaller then just adjust the roasting time, as necessary. Rainbow vegetable chickpea stew - warming, hearty and healthy.You can also mix and match the veggies based on what you have available.The base for this vegan stew is chickpeas, which go amazingly with the tomato paste. You can combine the chickpeas with lentil too if preferred.