Soup du jour

The day in question being the one where hunger > cash. Don't mock the turnip - it adds flavour and texture.

Spicy chick pea and neep soup

Serves: I keep losing count. Maybe 10 or 12 people.

500 gms dried chick peas, soaked overnight, and boiled in the approved fashion.
At least three large onions, peeled and roughly chopped
A couple of carrots, scraped or peeled
A couple of sticks of celery if you have them
Two or three medium potatoes, peeled
One medium swede (turnip) peeled and roughly chopped
A few cloves of garlic (squished or chopped) or a good squeeze of garlic puree from a tube
A spoonful or two of tomato paste (optional)
A generous teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder
A dash of shoyu
A glug of chili sauce eg Encona
Salt and pepper
Your cooking oil of choice
Water, obviously

Method:
Take a very large saucepan. Fry the onions in the oil. When these are going a bit transparent you can add the other veg. Give them a quick fry, then add the garlic if you are using fresh. Stir, add water and bouillon powder, then simmer. When the root vegetables are soft, add the cooked chick peas. (A bit of cooking liquor is fine but if there is loads I would drain them.)
The next stage is to turn the whole thing into a thick puree. I have an industrial blender which I can use in the saucepan, but you may want to use a food processor or blender.
Now adjust the flavouring, using the shoyu, salt and pepper, tomato puree and garlic puree (unless you've already used the cloves of course). Carefully add enough chili sauce to make the soup spicy but not eye-watering.
Add boiling water until you have the thickness of soup that you prefer.

Serving refinements: a blob of something creamy eg creme fraiche, or maybe some chopped herbs.