Anti-Inflammatory Veggie Orzo & Chickpea Soup
If anyone has been keeping up with me on social media (probably more so my personal account), you know that I have been quite the gym rat these days. Working to get that wedding bod! It has become to be such a rewarding feeling putting work in and truly seeing progress. I in fact am getting my measurements taken again at the end of this week! Having check-ins like this really helps keep me on track, so diet is super important!
When you are working your muscles heavily, such as I am with my weight training, it is important to nourish your body with the right foods. I like to eat a lot of vegetables and have a good amount of carbs to fuel my body and brain. Plus turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory that has a TON of good benefits. Oh, and another more aesthetic benefit to turmeric is that it makes any chicken noodle soup style dish even more yellow-colored! It just gives off the most beautiful color that is unlike any other spice.
This soup is just so enjoyable – a co-worker of mine likes to taste test my food and she couldn’t get enough of this! In her words – the lemon juice makes it. So please, trust me when I say that this is an important step! A quick side note – with pasta-laden soup dishes, in my experience, if you have leftovers, the moisture continues to be absorbed into the pasta. So for reheating purposes, I would add more water to give it more of a soup-type consistency, or just be aware that it will thicken up, which is how I typically end up eating it. And another thing to point out for the carb-conscious folks – this entire recipe (8 servings worth) only calls for one cup of pasta. That means that for each serving, you are only getting 1/8th cup of pasta. Have no fear! This was SUCH a satisfying post-workout meal, but is great as dinner as well with a slice of crusty bread! 🙂
Anti-Inflammatory Veggie Orzo & Chickpea Soup
Ingredients
- 1 onion chopped
- 4 carrots chopped
- 4 celery stalks chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 6 cups veggie stock
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- few turns of freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 2 cans chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 1 cup dry orzo pasta
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tsp salt
- juice from 2 lemons
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and begin sweating, about 3 minutes. Add garlic. Cook until vegetables are soft, 5-10 minutes total.
- Add the dried thyme, rosemary, a few turns of fresh cracked black pepper, and turmeric.
- Add the veggie stock and bring to a boil. If you want more of a soupy consistency, add one to two more cups of veggie stock or water.
- Add the chickpeas, orzo pasta, and bay leaf. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes until the orzo is cooked through.
- Reduce heat to low, and add in lemon juice. This is such an important step, do not miss the lemons! It adds such a brightness that it is worth it!
- Recipe source: Nomming with Nicola