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!
• 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)