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Generally cream soups are thickened using potatoes and/or potato water, or a roux (mixture of flour and butter). However, if you are looking for a healthier alternative, try using chickpeas instead. The method is simple: make your broth, add canned chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) and blend together until smooth. You'll probably find that you don't need as much milk or cream, though it is a personal choice as to how much you want to add. Add your remaining ingredients and boil everything together. The added benefit is, even though chickpeas contain carbs, they also add protein, fiber, and nutrients to your soup that you may not otherwise get. If you have kids, they will never know they are in there either so it is a sneaky way to get them to eat something a little different. As far as flavor, the beans add a slightly nutty taste, but don't overwhelm your other ingredients.
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1-24-2007 @12:56PM Shai said... Thickening using legumes and lentils is very popular in Indian cooking. I personally use lentils allot as thickeners and they provide less flavor than the chickpeas no risk of gas no preservatives (from canning, dry chickpeas take forever to cook) and come in many colors (to deepen the color of the dish). I use lentils more to thicken sauces rather than soups though...
The protein content in all legumes is pretty good too ;-)
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1-24-2007 @2:03PM Kristina said... Great idea ... I roast chickpeas all the time for snacks. I can puree a batch and keep it for thickening soup. Thank you for the tip (and the lentil tip from the poster, as well).
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1-24-2007 @4:30PM Lenka said... Interesting idea! On a related note, I've been using besan (chickpea flour, which can be purchased at Indian groceries or natural-foods stores) instead of wheat flour when making roux to thicken soups and sauces. I use the same proportions of flour to butter/oil, and the results are delicious - especially when you allow the roux to brown slightly.
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1-24-2007 @4:34PM Stefania@FamilyFood said... ..popular in Italian cooking, too. I like to use the chickpea method but find that for some soups, cannellini beans work better when you don't want a "garbanzo-y" flavor.
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1-25-2007 @7:10AM Steve said... I'm wondering why you would use canned chickpeas. Chickpeas cook rather fast if you soak them in water for a couple of hours (like you do with beans). Just cook them with your soup.
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1-25-2007 @8:29AM Bruno said... I usually make a cream of garbanzo (olive oil, onion, garbanzo), and then add some whole garbanzos to have something to chew in the soup and that's that. I might also add some pasta (macaroni) to the cream. Recently I found that if you add some 2 spoons of curcuma (yellow spice), or even curry, the flavor of this cream becomes incredible.
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