Chickpea Leek & Fennel Soup
There is something rather lovely about the change of seasons here in Pollenca. The searing heat of the summer days have been banished and now it’s sunny autumn skies and evenings filled with chilly mountain air. So with the flip flops packed away for a few months it’s time to hunker down with woolly jumpers, log fires and warming soups.


When it comes to food, one of my many guilty pleasures is to spend far to much time reading cookbooks. I absolutely love it when you pick one up that you haven’t looked at for a while and stumble upon a recipe that you can’t believe you’ve missed. This is one of those and it’s thanks to Polpo by Russell Norman. The star is the humble chickpea and when I spied a jar of local ‘ciurons mallorquins cuits’ in our local Agromart it was on the menu that day in our house. This really hits the spot!
INGREDIENTS:
2 Jars of Ciurons Mallorquins Ecologies (or 800g can of chickpeas!)
2 litres of chicken stock
Pinch of diced chilli
Virgin Olive Oil (from our wonderful neighbours finca)
2 finely diced shallots
2 leeks cut into 1cm pieces
2 small fennel bulbs cut into 1cm pieces
Sea salt (Es Trenc of course)
METHOD:
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Pop some of the fantastic olive oil from the island into a pan to sweat the shallots, leeks and fennel until they are soft. Season as you go.
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Add the chickpeas (well rinsed), stock and a pinch of chilli and cook for about 5 mins. When all the flavours have had a chance to mingle you can then remove about half and blend until smooth.
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Combine the blitzed chickpeas and vegetables with the the other half you kept back, season and the serve with a drizzle of olive oil and some crust bread