This Chickpea Fennel Soup with Pesto is one of my family’s favorite soups, a cross between a pistou and a ribolatta, deeply flavorful, nourishing, and satisfying. It’s inspired by a soup in Ottolenghi’s Plenty Cookbook, the first of his books our family owned. The soup is enriched with a generous amount of white wine and fennel which both add complexity. At the table you garnish your bowl with pesto and homemade torn croutons, both easy to make. I’m happy making this soup on a regular rotation. During the recent blizzard in Southern California, a big batch of this soup made the evenings cozier.
You can buy pesto or make it at home. I generally make pesto without a recipe. I add basil, garlic, parm, nuts, olive oil, and a pinch of salt to a food process. After blending, I taste for flavor, and add more of something for balance. This time I used almonds because that’s what I had on hand. The classic pesto has basil and pine nuts, but pesto is essentially a sauce made from an herb or green leaf plus nuts, so you can experiment.
Note that in the original Ottolenghi recipe, he soaks the torn croutons in the soup pot for several minutes before serving so the bread thickens the soup. However, my family always serves the torn croutons at the table as a garnish for a little more texture.
Ingredients
- 2 large onions
- 2 fennel bulbs
- olive oil
- 2-3 large carrots
- 6 celery stalks
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 cups white wine
- 28 ounces canned tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs
- 4 bay leaves
- 4 teaspoons sugar
- 6-8 cups light vegetable broth
- salt and pepper
- sourdough bread or a baguette
For the Pesto
- 1-2 cups basil leaves
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- parm or vegan parm
- toasted pine nuts or almonds
- few pinches of salt
- few tablespoons of olive oil
