Blended Chickpea Soup

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Enjoy this healthy and delicious blended chickpea soup that is easy and quick to make. This soup is dairy-free, meat-free, and gluten-free making it a great recipe for vegetarians and vegans. I hope you enjoy this creamy chickpea soup as a new addition to your meal plan.

Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are commonly used in Italian cooking since they are found throughout the Mediterranean region. 

You’ll love the creamy consistency which is characteristic of a pureed chickpea soup. However in this recipe, we add in a special ingredient, a can of cannellini beans which brings even more creaminess.

This soup is a great source of protein since chickpeas and cannellini beans are considered legumes. Legumes offer a healthy way to obtain protein through natural foods. This is important especially for those on a vegan diet.

Ready to Jump to Recipe? Let’s Go!

How to Make a Blended Chickpea Soup Creamy

As I mentioned above this is a blended chickpea soup using both canned chickpeas and cannellini beans. The reason for the cannellini beans is because they help make the soup creamier, but also because they are mild in flavor. 

There’s a perfect balance between the two, and the rest of the ingredients are almost what you’d see in any basic stock (onion, carrot, celery, garlic) as shown in my image below.

This is a Vegan Chickpea Soup

This recipe does not use any chicken broth or any other animal product. No curry, no dairy.  With our simple list of vegetables, we are creating our own quick vegetable stock by sautéing the vegetables and then adding the water and letting it cook for 30 minutes. 

The ingredients you’ll need are:

• 2-3 garlic cloves (or more if you love garlic!)
• 1 Onion
• 1 Celery
• 1 Carrot
• 1 can of garbanzo (chickpea) beans
• 1 can of cannellini beans (or other white bean)

After cooking the vegetables and beans we place everything in a blender, which creates the pureed garbanzo bean soup. 

You can use also add in your own vegetable stock or bullion if you want to create even more depth to the flavor.

One tip though I recommend upfront is not to tell anyone that this soup has chickpeas in it unless they love chickpeas.  For whatever reason chickpeas get such a bad rap that it might turn off those sitting at the table with you.

Tell them afterwards when they say they want seconds! 😉

How to Make Creamy Chickpea Soup

Unlike many soups that can take hours to simmer, this recipe does not.   Also, since we are using canned chickpeas and canned cannellini beans, you save time by not having to soak the beans overnight.  

This also means it is a great soup to make at the last minute, after a long day at work when all you want is something healthy and tasty. 

Start with the onions

First, you chop and start sauteing the onions in olive oil in a large pan for about 5-8 minutes until tender.  

Garlic, carrots, celery

Meanwhile, chop your garlic, celery and carrots into small cubes. Since we are blending the ingredients, don’t worry about dicing them too small.    

Add the garlic to the pan once the onions are tender. After about 2 minutes add the celery and carrots and saute for about 10 to 15 minutes over medium heat.

Adding the beans and water

Next, add the chickpeas and cannellini canned beans along with the water.  Make sure the beans are rinsed. 

Cook the chickpea soup

Bring the soup to a boil and then set to low heat (not too low) for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Blend the Chickpea soup until it is creamy

After 30 minutes, blend in a blender or food processor and blend until desired creamy consistency (not long). Do this in batches, making sure there’s enough room in the blender at the top otherwise it may splash on you.

How to Store Creamy Italian Chickpea Soup

If you have any leftover soup, let cool and store in air tight food containers. We ran out of our glass containers so we used these gelato containers that worked out great!

Total time:  1 hour and 5 minutes max, and that’s with half the time being unattended. 

 

Is Your Creamy Chickpea Soup Too Watery?

If you follow my recipe exactly, it is not a thick soup like a chowder. Chickpeas are not creamy beans, which is why I add in the cannellini beans. If you try to only use chickpeas, they will not provide the creamy texture you want for the soup.

However, the more you blend the smoother the texture. I don’t mind some of the chickpea texture in my soup. 

If you want the soup to have a thicker consistency, try the following:

• Add diced potatoes in with the vegetables and proceed as normal
• Reduce the amount of water by cooking it down
• Add in a second can of chickpeas or cannellini beans

Variations for this Vegan Chickpea Soup

There are many variations to this soup, so feel free to add in your own healthy twist. Here are some additional ideas that you can add before or after blending the soup.

• Potatoes
• Spinach
• Kale or Collards (cook first and add after blending) See my recipe for Italian Kale soup!
• Add extra garlic making it even more flavorful
• Top with red pepper flakes or toss in a hot pepper for extra heat
• Add extra herbs such as Italian flat parsley

You’ll notice this recipe does not use salt.  You can certainly add it in, but in my efforts to keep it as healthy as possible I created it to also be sodium free (unless you use vegetable broth instead of water).

How to Blend the Beans

There are different ways to puree this soup. I’ve listed three below which will all work just fine. They are using a regular large blender, a food processor or a handheld stick blender also called an immersion blender.

Large Blender

You can blend the soup in a large blender, such as a VitaMix which is what we use as shown in the image above. The soup has enough liquid that we had to blend it in two batches, since filling the blender too full will make it explode due to the trapped steam and heat.  Not a pretty sight. 

Instead fill it up half way and give it a few pulses and then let it run until the desired consistency is reached.  Pour into a separate container and then blend the remaining batch and when finished combine the two together and serve. 

Food Processor

You can also use a food processor, not as great but doable. I’d recommend this only if you want the soup to be of a very thick consistency and you don’t have much liquid.

Handheld Stick Blender

Lastly, you can use a hand held blender stick which is nice and convenient, a great space saver. I’ve used this for many soups, however haven’t tried it on this one.  

The benefit to using this method is that you can make the chickpea soup as creamy or as lumpy as you wish. If you prefer this type of consistency where only some of the beans are blended and some are left whole, then is is a great option.

What to Serve with a Creamy Garbanzo Bean Soup?

Like most creamy soups, there are a number of side dishes that will go well. Here are some ideas.

• Toasted Italian bread
• Roasted garlic
• Tossed salad

Alternatively you can use chickpea soup for a lighter fare or for a side dish.   The soup is surprisingly filling, where even after a single bowl and two, you’re quite satisfied.   

I hope you enjoy this delicious creamy chickpea soup! Let me know in the comments.

For more soup recipes and ideas check out these:

• Cannellini bean soup
• Winter Minestrone soup
• Chickpea salad
• Cannellini bean salad

This recipe post was updated December, 2022.  Original recipe was posted sometime in 2012.