Vegetable, Chickpea and Quinoa Soup

You might as well make this soup in a bathtub and rub it all over your bod with a luffa.

Who knew that "luffa" had two f's? Not I, not I.

Believe me when I say that this right here is one cray bowl of soup. It totally has every food group you'll ever need in each spoonful: a smorgasbord of veggies, fiberlicious chickpeas and protein-packed quinoa.

But wait. Before I say another word about this soup, I have to tell you something. A student I counseled today lost twelve pounds! Did you hear me?! Twelve freaking pounds in three weeks. I nearly died. I nearly cried. It was like she was my daughter and she had just gotten her first A on an English test.  I was so bursting with pride that it nearly spilled all over the table. The priiiiiiide.

At our previous appointment, we had talked about the plate technique and making an effort to include at least three or more food groups at each meal, one of which is always a fruit or vegetable. This helps encourage variety and balance. She made a conscious effort to ditch refined grains and opt for whole ones, along with upping her water intake and not eating out so much (even if it's an innocent Panera sammie that's secretly evil).

We talked about not labeling these achievements as a "diet" but rather as a healthy lifestyle. Diets are temporary fixes to lose weight. They don't work in the long run because they're unrealistic and unsustainable. That's why they're temporary. Eating real, healthy food is not.

We talked about understanding a food label, which is no easy task. The majority of people I work with have never even read a food label. Why would they? It's not like we're taught in school how to decode a food label and translate partially hydrogenated oil into the trans fat that'll kill at least a fourth of us in 50 years. Oh no. We're too busy studying the Iroquois tribe and memorizing constellations to mess with silly nutrition babble.

Today we talked about my personal mantra, counting ingredients not calories. Now that she knew how to choose healthier options, I wanted to challenge her to start eliminating highly processed foods from her diet. I encouraged her to put the product back on the shelf if it had a big list of funky ingredients.  To demonstrate, I showed her a flavored Pringles ingredient list that had thirty trillion ingredients I could hardly pronounce, ranging from artificial colors to trans fat. The truth is that you don't have to be a scientist to decipher the code. You don't have to know what every disgusting chemical actually is. The bottom line is that if it sounds like science, it belongs in a lab, not your pantry.

If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. Because loaded baked potato Pringles aren't food. They're.... fake flavored potato impostors with some SERIOUS junk in the trunk.

Eeeeek I've spent this whole time writing about my fab patient and not this fab soup. I guess you'll just have to trust me that this is the perfect soup because it 100% is. It's also super duper easy to make.

Vegetable, Chickpea & Quinoa Soup > loaded baked potato Pringles.

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Vegetable, Chickpea & Quinoa Soup

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• Author: Hummusapien
• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: 30 min
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Soup
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: American

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Description

An easy, flavorful soup loaded with fresh vegetables, chickpeas and quinoa.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 tsp grapessed or olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 ½ tsp italian seasoning
• 1 ½ cups green beans, chopped into small pieces (I used frozen)
• ½ cup corn (I used frozen roasted corn)
• 4 cups vegetable broth + ½ cup water
• 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato paste (freeze the rest in a baggie for later use)
• ¼ cup quinoa, dry
• 1 cup spinach, chopped
• ½ tsp salt
• Pepper, to taste

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Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes, or until softened, stirring often. Add garlic and sauté a minute more. Add carrots, celery and italian seasoning and cook 5 more minutes.
2. Add thawed green beans, thawed corn, vegetable broth, water, chickpeas, tomatoes, tomato paste and quinoa. Bring to a bowl. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for 15 minutes
3. Remove lid and raise heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered for 15-20 minutes (or until vegetables are fork tender), stirring occasionally.
4. Add spinach and stir to combine. Add salt and season to taste with freshly ground pepper.

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