Chickpea Soup with Spinach

How to prepare chickpea soup with spinach

1. At least 8 hours ahead (I prefer to start in the morning) put the chickpeas in plenty of water to soak. By evening they will have doubled in volume. Drain and then wash the chickpeas in several changes of clean water.
2. In a pot add the chickpeas, carrot cut into large pieces, onion cut in half, 2 garlic cloves peeled and left whole, lemon peel (removed with a vegetable peeler), rosemary, oil (use your best olive oil, the one you use for salads) and 1.5 liters of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer with the lid just slightly ajar until the chickpeas are cooked. At the beginning, skim the soup if needed. You'll get a golden soup, slightly viscous from the chickpeas (similar to the water in which you cook dried beans) and already very flavorful.
3. When the chickpeas are cooked, remove from the soup anything that would bother you (I removed the rosemary, lemon peel, onion; I left the carrot and garlic). Season the soup with salt, black pepper and chili flakes if desired.
4. Since the spinach is young, just wash it as is, leaving it with the stems. If the leaves are larger, you can roughly chop the spinach to make it easier to eat, so it doesn't form too long "strings".
6. Add the spinach to the hot soup in batches and at the end add the remaining crushed garlic. Cover and simmer over low heat for another 5 minutes.
7. Serve the soup warm.

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