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
-
Zuppa Toscana (Olive Garden copy-cat)
-
Chicken Noodle Soup from scratch – or a quick version!
-
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! Â But once he realised it wasn’t edible, he was completely uninterested. I give up.
Amazing soup! Loved by the whole family. Thank you Nagi! x
Can I use chickpea in salty water or in water? Thank you!
Amazing recipe, loved by friends and even my 3 year loved it! Recommend Greek yogurt and coriander as it just adds another
level to the dish 😀
Hi Nagi, I´ve not made this (yet) but I have a little question for you, my plan is to make your “slow cooked lamb shawarma” on Sunday and I know for a fact that I will have some left over, so I was wondering if I could use that instead of the mince for this soup or is that just weird? I hate wasting food. Hope you and Dozer have a wonderful weekend, no more fish eye eating Dozer 🙂 .. Saying that, I grew up eating sheeps heads, they were just there smiling at you on the dinner table and people eat their eyes, I think I cried everytime my mum made this, we call it “svið” in Iceland, google it and you´ll know what I mean x
Hi Rakel, yes you could use that here or I love frying up leftover lamb and putting it on wraps with lettuce, tabbouleh and hummus! N x
Just the fantastic smell of the kitchen as this delicious soup is cooking alone makes it a keeper! Filling, quick to make and that magical spice combo reminds me of my favorite Lebanese restaurant which, sadly, recently closed its doors for good. I have a lower tolerance for spiciness the older I get so it was just a tad on the spicy side for me as written, so keep that in mind, fellow spice sensitives. I’ll cut the cayenne in half next time, I think. And there will be a next time! I added some leftover peas and sautéed mushrooms and threw in a few frozen pearl onions I found in the back of freezer. Heck you could add an old shoe to this recipe and it will still be absolutely delicious! Can’t give enough stars!!
The spices make this meal a winner. Delicious.
Hi Nagi,
I’m new to your page and am absolutely loving your recipes, especially this one!
Wanted to ask, do you think this one would freeze well? Planning on making it for work lunches if so!
Yes 100% Angela, just microwave to defrost and heat! N x
Gorgeous intense flavor. A deeply satisfying dish! Thank you!
Nagi you are the bomb!!
Oh shucks – thanks so much Fulvia! N x
This is so flavoursome & amazing, I’m just making it for the 3rd time, the house smells so fragrant, love the mix of spices, Thank-you!!
Navi you are the bomb!!
Absolutely delicious, a real winner! The only change I made was I used thinly sliced lamb blackstrap instead of mince because that’s what I had in the fridge.
Sounds like you nailed it Sandy!! N x
I wanted to try a new recipe for dinner. This turned out to be a wonderful recipe that my whole family enjoyed (teens included)! I used swiss chard instead of spinach because it was abundant in my garden with no notable difference. I will definitely make this again!
Again, I bow to you…..you are The best, ever cuisine artist….ever! We love, love, love this dish. We tried to save some for another day, but shamelessly licked the bottom of the bowl clean. This recipe is a godsend, perfect on our rainy day. The flavors popped with the spices and we loved the that veggie components remain to the tooth. No sogginess or overcooked beans, spinach, etc. It was amazing that the cooking time would’ve product such a delicious sauce. Outstanding!!!! Thank you
FYI I have made this twice and it’s a huge hit! I used more tomato and definitely more salt and spices, 1 cup less chicken broth to make it more stew-like or chili-ish in consistency.
Also I made homemade tzaziki sauce this time to go on top of the soup/stew and WOW! It adds a tang and dimension to the dish that absolutely elevated it even more than the wonderful original finished product! Highly recommend! Thx for great recipe!
Funny story. It’s a cold winter day here in Alberta. My friend texted me saying it’s a lamb shawarma soup day. I told her that sounds yummy. She said she hoped so…it was my recipe!!! I had forwarded her your recipe last year. I made it tonight too. So good. The aromatics are amazing. I pressure cooked chickpeas and added cauliflower and broccoli. Delicious. Thank you.
Just made this one, and it was delicious. Thought you might like to know that I used Swiss Chard instead of spinach, as it is what I had growing in the garden. Added it into the dish earlier, as it takes a little longer to cook, but it worked just fine!
This was really good! We used ground turkey- so flavorful; not spicy – we really enjoyed this!!