carrot soup with chickpea croquettes

This recipe was a total crapshoot, haphazardly thrown together after work one night. My aunt makes a carrot soup with turkey meatballs that is just about her daughter's favorite food, so when I saw this recipe for chickpea meatballs I decided to play around and see what I could come up with. And holy moly, it came out even better than I had hoped. I love it when a plan comes together.

It's comforting and absolutely perfect for this weather (Cue impending snowstorm. Sigh.), in addition to healthy and easy to have on hand. I recommend making extra soup to freeze, and then all you need to do in future is throw together some croquettes, which takes less than 30 minutes. You can call them meatballs if you like, but it just feels bizarre to me. For the same reason I prefer when seitan is called seitan and not Chikn. Or Beeph. *shiver*

Carrot Soup with Chickpea Croquettes:

First, the soup:

• 1 lb carrots, peeled or unpeeled, chopped
• 1/2 lb parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• Oil for sautéing
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp dill
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• Salt to taste

Heat a couple teaspoons of oil in the bottom of a medium pot. Add the onion and sweat over medium-low heat for two or three minutes. Add the dill, turmeric and salt and sauté several more minutes. Add everything else but the milk and bring to a boil. Reduce to a hearty simmer and cook, covered, until the carrots and parsnips are tender. Let cool slightly before pureeing using an immersion or upright blender. 

While the soup is cooking you can make the croquettes.

• 1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and thoroughly rinsed
• 2 tbsp veganaise
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 tbsp mustard
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and mix till smooth, scraping down as needed. Roll into twelve balls and place on oiled cookie sheet. Spray or brush with oil and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned and firm to the touch.

Place two or three croquettes in each bowl of soup and enjoy!