Sunday night supper

Time to get the soup recipes out, now that the days are getting cooler.  This is one of our favourites, as there are only the two of us, I  halve the recipe and only use one chicken breast, there is plenty for a generous serve each and leftovers for lunch as well.

Chicken, Chickpea and Dumpling Soup

• 3 tbsp olive oil              6 bacon rashers sliced
• 2 onions chopped         2 leeks sliced
• 4 carrots sliced             3 garlic cloves sliced
• 4 sticks celery sliced     2 x 400g cans chickpeas
• 2.5 litre chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 skinless chicken breasts

Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add bacon, onions, leeks, garlic, carrots and celery and cook, stirring, for about 7 minutes, or until starting to soften (without colouring too much. Add chickpeas, stock and bay leaves and bring to boil: simmer for 20 minutes. Skim off any scum. Meanwhile, roughly slice chicken breasts into bite-size pieces and add to soup. Return to the boil and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Make the dumplings while the chicken is cooking.

Dumplings:

• 350g plain flour 
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 100g grated cheddar cheese
• 4 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 150ml milk

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in grated cheese and parsley. Add egg and enough milk to make a soft (but not sticky) dough. Roll the dough into 16 walnut-size dumplings.

Drop the dumplings into soup, cover with a lid and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until dumplings have puffed up.

Serves 8

This recipe was originally from The Australian by David Herbert