No bland chickpea soup in my world! Exploding with flavour, this tastes like your favourite Chicken Shawarma – except it’s in soup form with lamb and chickpeas. Filling, nutritious and quick to make!
Chickpea soup with flavour explosion!
I had every intention of making a wholesome, chickpea and vegetable soup.
I really, really tried to get excited about it.
It is possible to make a great meat-free chickpea soup (I promise I will share mine one day!). But, but, but…. I wanted kapow flavours. Actually, I was really tempted to do the long haul drive for a good laksa fix. I felt like I deserved it. (But then, I always feel I deserve it….)
So I compromised. Chickpeas. Veggie loaded – there’s a whole bunch of spinach in this, plus carrots plus onion (yes that counts towards your daily veggie intake, I checked!). Lamb for protein, cooked with my Chicken Shawarma spice mix – wait until you smell this part!!!! It’s SO GOOD!
Shawarma Spice Mix
This is the same shawarma spice mix I use for Chicken Shawarma, a long standing reader favourite. The combination of spices in this is intoxicating!
Oh boy. If you like kapow flavours, or if you are dubious about chickpea soups having been scarred by bland ones in the past, this Lamb Shawarma Chickpea Soup is for you!! It’s really fragrant, the soup itself is quite intense from both the spices and also the lamb. It’s hearty, almost stew-like. Actually, I didn’t know whether to call this a stew or soup.
Because the soup flavouring is from the Shawarma Spice Mix, there’s no need to simmer this for ages. Just long enough for the carrot to become tender. Oh, also, I use canned chickpeas here. Speedy, unplanned meal. 🙂
But if you do have the foresight to plan and want to take it over the top, add a side of homemade flatbreads (simple, no yeast!) or make this mind blowingly easy crusty Artisan bread.
Update: I recently created a similar but different variation of this soup in the form of Beef & Lentil Soup. This was has more Moroccan-inspired flavours. Give it a try too!
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Chickpea Lamb Shawarma Soup
Ingredients
Spices:
- 2 tsp EACH cumin powder, coriander, paprika
- 1 tsp cardamon powder (can omit if you don’t have)
- ¼ tsp cinnamon powder
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
Soup:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 onion , finely chopped
- 500 g / 1 lb lamb mince (ground lamb, or beef) (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 carrots , peeled and chopped (about size of chickpeas)
- 600 g / 21 oz canned chickpeas , drained and rinsed (1.5 standard cans, Note 2)
- 400 g / 14 oz can crushed tomato
- 3 cups / 750 ml chicken broth / stock
- 1 bunch spinach , roughly chopped (about 4 packed cups) (wilts a lot)
Garnishes (highly recommended):
- Plain yoghurt (or sour cream)
- Chopped fresh coriander / cilantro
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook for 1 minute until starting to turn translucent.
- Add lamb and cook, breaking it up as you go. When it has mostly turned from pink to light brown, add spices.
- Cook for 1 minute, then add tomato paste and cook for another 1 minute. (It smells amazing!)
- Add carrots, chickpeas, tomato and broth. Stir and bring to simmer.
- Cover with lid, lower heat so it is bubbling energetically but not crazy rapidly. Cook for 10 minutes until carrot is tender but not super soft – I like it to have a bit of bite still, if you want super soft, keep cooking.
- Stir through spinach. Once wilted, adjust salt, pepper and spiciness (cayenne) to taste, and water if you want more liquid.
- Ladle into bowls, add a dollop of yoghurt and a generous sprinkling of coriander. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More hearty soups
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Chicken Noodle Soup from scratch – or a quick version!
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Browse all Soups
Life of Dozer
Spent my afternoon tea break trying to teach him to hold a flower in his mouth, just because I think it would be so cute! But once he realised it wasn’t edible, he was completely uninterested. I give up.
I made this for dinner tonight and instead of using yogurt we used Labne. Labne is a staple in our house, my husband’s family is Lebanese and Labne goes so well with lamb and these spices. Here in the states find it in whole foods type stores. This soup is so delicious!!!
I saw this on your instagram earlier this week and thought this would be perfect for today (a rainy Sunday). It was! Very comforting dish for a chilly, grey, rainy day.
Made this tonight and it was a hit! I treated it as a stew and served it over rice. So delicious. My kids asked me to make it again already. Another RecipeTin success! Thanks, Nagi!
This recipe is amazing…such great flavor! I make this probably once a month. Everyone loves it.
This soup is on high rotation at our house. I make a double batch for freezing. It’s perfect as is, but we occasionally swap the proteins. Most recently used turkey mince and replaced the chickpeas with canned cannellini beans. Yum!
I’ve made this twice now. First a double batch for “Souper Tuesday” at work and once just for myself. It’s amazing!! Only changes I made were to use frozen chopped spinach as it cost less than 1/5th of the cost of fresh and rice make a single batch I used a whole litre of stock and only one can of chickpeas but I also probably used a little extra carrot and spinach. I didn’t want half empty or not quite finished bottles or cans of stuff in the fridge. Delicious!
I found the chickpeas to be dry for some reason so I made it the second time with lentils and OMGosh is it good. Try half a pound of dry lentils. The flavors are amazing but the texture is fabulous!
Where are you Nagi? I miss you and Dozer, hope you are both well. I did make this soup a couple of days ago and oh man was this not only packed with flavour but so filling too, my partner had 3 bowls of it and he took some in a flask to work the morning after, the poor thing was sweating his a**e off because it was nearly 30 degrees here in Manchester, but who cares when the food tastes this nice. Take care Nagi. X
OMG! This was Amazing! Beautiful Flavours. Protein Packed! Will be on rotation frequently during Winter.
oh me oh my!!!
I know right?? It’s a flavour bomb!! N x
could l cook this soup and then freeze for later use,,,,cheers Jennifer
I usually freeze half for later use and it freezes perfectly.
The flavour is gorgeous
Perfectly spiced.
I added the lime juice as other reviews suggested and it was perfect
I am happy that you enjoyed it Katrina! N x
Delicious – I probably needed less cayenne and needed to strain more fat from the pan but the soup is crave worthy! I highly recommend using Lamb, the flavor with the spices was so good!
Delicious – I probably needed less cayenne and needed to strain more fat from the pan but the soup is crave worthy! I highly recommend using Lamb, the flavor with the spices was so good!
Used left over lamb roast. Delicious
Squeezed lime on our portions which elevated this into the put-on-the-always-when-we-have-lamb list! Thank you!
Another fantastic recipe that tastes great and is super quick to make. Never mind saving it for a cold winters night (I’ll be doing that too) we had it on a hot night after a 41c day and it was delicious. I reduced the cayenne down to 1/8 tspn and served with mint as well as coriander. Cant wait for the leftovers tonight YUMMM!! Thanks again Nagi x
I am glad you enjoyed it Tracey! N x
I’d call it a stoup! 🤣
This was fabulous and so comforting. It’s a Keeper!
Which type of paprika though? (Not specified) I used smoked paprika. Lovely smokiness.
You can use regular sweet paprika or smoked if you prefer the smokier flavour! N x
Made this today for work lunches for the next few days. So, so tasty that I’m looking forward to work to eat it 😂😂