Curried Chickpea Soup

I seriously wish you could smell this. You know those evenings, when you're out on a walk around dinner time, and you walk by someone's house and the aroma of their amazingly flavourful dinner is drifting through the neighbourhood and you think, "how come my dinners never smell that good?" You know those nights? Well, last night, as I was walking to the front door of our building after running to IGA for cilantro and Naan, I had that very thought, and as I stood for a minute trying to distinguish the smells, I realized it was probably mine! Spicy curry combined with the sweetness of coconut with a serious kick. I had left the soup lightly simmering with the exhaust running while I was gone (since it was so close, and Alistair was home). When I walked in the door, my suspicions were confirmed. What an incredible aroma!
You HAVE to try this one! Special thanks go to my big sister, Alli, for introducing some curry recipes to our family cookbook, giving me the inspiration to venture into the realm of Indian cuisine.
[sidenote: this recipe also comes from Rebar*, but I made several modifications-- I'll post the recipe as it is, with my changes in brackets behind]



Curried Chickpea Soup with tomatoes, ginger and cilantro

Ingredients:
8 cups vegetable stock [I used chicken broth- would probably only use 6 c. next time, as it ended up a bit more soupy than I had hoped]
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, finely diced
2 tsp salt [sea salt]
2 bay leaves
8 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp minced ginger [generous]
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded
1 red pepper [yellow- that's all I had- red would have been nice, to add more colour]
6 ripe tomatoes [1 c. canned diced tomatoes, drained]
1 tsp cumin seed [powder]
1 tsp coriander seed [powder]
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp cracked pepper [couple of turns on the pepper grinder]
1/8 tsp turmeric
3 c. canned chickpeas [+ ~2c. more, separated]
1/4 c. prepared mango chutney [generous]
1/2 can coconut milk [whole can]
1/2 bunch cilantro, minced [+ a few leaves whole for garnish]

Instructions:
Place garlic, ginger, jalapenos, pepper and tomatoes in a food processor and pulse until the vegetables form a rough puree. Set aside.
Heat oil in soup pot [medium high heat] and add onion, 1 tsp salt and bay leaves. Saute until onions are soft and golden.
Grind cumin and coriander seeds [or use powder]. Add these and all remaining spices to the sauteed onions and continue cooking and stirring for 5 minutes.
Add vegetable puree and another tsp of salt and simmer until small blobs of oil pool on the surface. [Remove bay leaves]
Add 3 c. chickpeas and stock and bring to a simmer. Cook several minutes, then add chutney and coconut milk.. Using a potato masher [or metal spatula], gently mash the chickpeas against the bottom of the pot to break them up slightly and thicken the soup. [Add remaining 2 c. chickpeas and leave whole.]
Simmer and season to taste with salt and cracked pepper. Add chopped cilantro just before serving.

* Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook Audrey Alsterberg and Wanda Urbanowicz, 2001.