Soups and stews are like soul food during fall and winter season. Its winter again and my family needs something warm and comforting. The good part about winter is that it is also a season of beautiful vegetables and fruits. Got a beautiful Swiss chard from Farmers market the other day and I thought I will use this beauty in a bean and chicken soup.
Bean and chicken soup with Swiss chard is hearty, warm and filling soup which will make you happy from the inside. Sauteed onion, celery, chard simmered with freshly cooked red kidney beans, chickpeas and chicken. The secret to any good soup is using good stock. In this recipe we are making stock by cooking soaked beans, chickpea and chicken with warm spices and tomatoes. I am not using canned beans or chickpea here and it makes a huge difference. With pressure cooker its pretty easy to cook beans and chickpeas. It seems pretty daunting at first but if you plan everything a head, you will find that it is pretty easy to make. Its a one pot meal, so you save bunch of time not cooking the side dishes.
Beans and Chicken soup with Swiss Chard Recipe
Course: Appetizers, SoupsCuisine: FusionDifficulty: Medium6
servings15
minutes50
minutes8-10
hoursA warm hearty soup or stew with red kidney and garbanzo beans cooked with bone in chicken breast, Swiss chard and warm spices.
Ingredients
1/3 cup of Red kidney beans (soaked for 8 hours) or( 1 can of Red Kidney beans)
1/3 cup of Dry chickpeas (soaked for 8 hours) or ( 1 can of chickpeas)
2 split Bone in chicken breast, skinless
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamom
6 cloves
1-2 small bayleaves
2 large vine tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 celery , finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3-4 green chillies or to taste
1 bunch of swiss chard
1/2 tsp of cumin powder
1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Drain water from chickpeas and beans and put it in the pressure cooker with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, bay leaves, 4 cups of water and let it come to a boil.
- Now add chicken, tomatoes and salt. Put on the lid with whistle and cook over low-medium heat until one whistle.
- Immediately after it whistled, take off the cooker from heat and let the steam escape.
- Once the steam escaped, open the cooker and take out the chicken breasts and place it on a plate.
- Close the lid again and cook until two whistles or until the beans are cooked through.
- Tear the leaves from the swiss chard’s stem and chop the stems finely. Finely chop the leaves and set it aside.
- Shred the meat from the chicken with the help of fork and knife and set it aside for later use. Discard the bones.
- In another big pan, heat oil and add onion, celery, garlic, stems of swiss chard, salt and saute until the onions are translucent.
- Add turmeric, cumin powder and saute for a minute.
- Now add leaves of swiss chard and saute for 5 minutes.
- Then add cooked beans, chickpeas with its cooking water and let it come to a boil.
- Mash some of the beans and chickpeas to give the soup a little thickness.
- Add the shredded chicken and simmer for 5 minutes and Bean and chicken soup with swiss chard is done.
Notes
- If you are using canned beans and chickpeas, just poach the chicken breast with whole cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, tomatoes, salt and pepper until it is cooked through. (For poaching, just put everything and let it come to a boil, then simmer for 10-15 minutes until the internal temperature of chicken is 165 F.
