Bowl Wheat & Chickpea Soup
(click to enlarge)

Wheat & Chickpea Soup


Spain   -   Ola Trigo
Makes:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 12 cups
**
2-1/4 hrs
Yes		 A peasant style soup that's simple but tasty and filling. It can also be made with Brown Rice or Barley, but Wheat is preferred.




10
1
1
1-1/2
5
6
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1/4
1/2
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8
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ar
oz
c
c
#
oz
oz
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t
T
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c
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Fennel (1)
Wheat (2)
Chickpeas dry  
Pork
Salt Pork (3)
Morcilla (4)
-- Seasonings
Pepper, black
Salt
-----------
Water
-- Garnish
Fennel Leaves  
Do-Ahead   -   (8+ hrs)
  1. Soak CHICKPEAS in Water to cover well and 1 teaspoon Salt - 8 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse.
  2. Soak WHEAT in Water to cover well - 8 hours or overnight. Drain.
Prep   -   (10 min)
  1. Chop FENNEL BULB small. Weight is whole bulb with stems trimmed flush.
Run   -   (2 hrs)
  1. In a suitable pan (4 quart), bring 4 cups of Water to a boil. Stir in SALT PORK (uncut) and Wheat (and Wild Fennel if using). Blanch for 5 minutes and drain.
  2. Clean the pan and add 8 cups of WATER and the Par Boiled items. Bring back to a boil.
  3. Stir in the Chickpeas. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and simmer covered 30 minutes.
  4. Stir in PORK (uncut), Morcilla (uncut), Fennel, and Seasonings. Bring back to a boil and turn to a simmer. simmer for 45 minutes.
  5. Fish out Meats. Cut Salt Pork crosswise into 1/2 inch strips. Cut Pork into bite size pieces. Slice Morcilla a little less than 1/2 inch. Return all to the pot. Check if more water is needed. bring back to a boil and simmer until pork is tender enough.
  6. Serve hot, garnished with Fennel Leaves.
NOTES:

  1. Fennel:

      While the pattern recipe prefers fresh young wild fennel shoots (not likely around here) it also allows bulbs of cultivated Florence Fennel (sometimes sold as "Anise"). Wild Fennel is stripped of its outer skin and cut into one inch lengths. It goes in with the Wheat rather than later where the Florence Fennel goes in.

  2. Wheat:

      While the pattern recipe prefers freshly harvested green wheat grains, here we use Pelted Wheat [Dzedzadz (Armenia)], Pearled Wheat] For details see our Wheat Products page.

  3. Salt Pork:

      This is an important flavoring in Spain, but is a little hard to find in much of North America. It is, however, easy to make at home by our recipe Salt Pork but takes 2 days. It can be skipped if you want to reduce fat at the cost of flavor. The pattern recipe called for 4 ounces plus 2 ounces of unsmoked bacon, which is actually about the same as Salt Pork but sliced thin and cured with much less salt.

  4. Morcilla:

      This is a Spanish blood sausage. It comes in two forms, de Cebola (with onions) and de Arroz (with rice). You want the onion version as the rice version disintegrates in cooking. Morcilla is only available from Spanish food specialists. There wasn't time to order it from La Española Meats, so the photo example was made with an English style Black Pudding from a local sausage maker. It doesn't hold together as well as the Morcilla de Cebola, so should be sliced and go into the pot for just the last 10 minutes of cooking. It is larger so cut slices in half. If you are squeamish about Blood Sausage, or can't get it, use a spicy Italian Sausage and add 1/8 teaspoon ground Cloves and 1/4 teaspoon ground Cinnamon to the stew - also a good Idea with non-Morcilla blood sausages.
  5. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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