Sopa de Grão com Espinafres, Portuguese Chickpea and Spinach Soup
Sopa de grão is everyday food across Portugal, a chickpea soup that stretches a cheap pantry into a filling bowl. Adding spinach makes it a meal, and the finish of cilantro, mint, and lemon is what pulls it out of the ordinary. The technique worth stealing is blending part of the potato and chickpeas back into the pot: it gives the broth a creamy body with no dairy and no oil, so the whole beans that stay behind have something to float in. Cilantro is not optional here; it is the herb that flavors more of Portugal's cooking than any other and sets this soup apart from its Greek and Spanish neighbors. It reheats well and costs pennies a bowl.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Chickpeas, cooked
- 4 cups Spinach, packed
- 1 Yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves Garlic, sliced
- 1 medium Potatoes, diced
- 1 Bay leave
- 1 tsp no-salt vegetable bouillon
- 1/4 cup Cilantro, chopped
- 2 tbsp Mint, chopped
- 1/2 Lemons, juiced
- 1/4 tsp Black peppercorns, ground
Method
- Sweat the onion and garlic in a pot with a splash of water until soft, about 6 minutes, adding more water when the pan dries. Cooking them gently in water builds the sweet base a Portuguese cook would start in oil.
- Add the diced potato, bay leaf, and 4 cups (1 L) water with the no-salt bouillon. Simmer until the potato is tender, about 12 minutes. The potato is there to be half-crushed later, thickening the broth so it feels rich without cream.
- Scoop out a cup of potato and a cup of the chickpeas, blend them smooth with a ladle of broth, and stir the puree back in. This is the move that turns a thin, watery soup into the velvety sopa Portuguese homes serve, using only what is already in the pot.
- Add the remaining chickpeas and the spinach and cook just until the spinach wilts, about 3 minutes. Overcooked spinach turns gray and flat, so pull it early while it is still bright green.
- Off the heat, stir in the cilantro, mint, lemon juice, and pepper. The fresh herbs and acid, added at the end, carry a soup made without salt, and it is the cilantro that marks this as Portuguese rather than Greek.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 200 calories, 10 g protein, 8 g fiber, 70 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
