Last week, I had dear friends over for lunch.
Generally, I love making my own food when I have people over so the day before the visit I rushed into Tesco’s before school pick up and lifted off the shelf a pack of what I thought were split lentils and thought no more of it.
After dinner that evening, I decided to make a start on my soup and placed about 300 grams of my pulses with half a pack of cut up veggies and a cube of chicken Knorr in a pot to boil.
It usually takes less than half an hour for lentils to boil but when I checked, my pulses were nowhere ready. That is because…they were split chickpeas!
You will not blame me as according to the picture below, lentils and split chickpeas can look quite similar. They do even more suspiciously so when you are in a hurry and plan a nice soup for friends the following day, haha!
Anyway, once the realisation settled in, I had to decide what to do, carry on with an experimental chickpea soup or start everything from scratch the following morning.
I went with the former option, as I thought mistakes can sometimes turn into delicious discoveries and I was right!
Since my chickpeas were taking forever to boil, I decided to transfer them into my slow cooker. I had planned on an Indian lentil soup and I had added half a teaspoon of Indian curry powder, some ground turmeric and a dusting of ground coriander but the flavour just wasn’t coming through as I wanted it so, in desperation in a struck of inspiration, I decided to add a packet of ready made Holy Cow sauce I had in the house.
The game changed completely once the sauce went in as the flavours of the sauce started to work on the chickpeas and infused everything beautifully in the slow cooker.
I turned my soup off when I went to bed (it had been in the slow cooker for about an hour, on slow) and in the morning, added a can of coconut milk into it. Once the chickpeas felt cooked, I processed them into a paste. The coconut milk made everything feel less like a sauce and more like a soup, as intended, and added even more flavour to the mix.
I did let it simmer gently on low for another hour or so in the slow cooker and served it with crusty bread and sandwiches and got a lot of praise for it!
So, here is my “mistake soup” which turned out as a success in the end! It is very filling, healthy and flavoursome and very cheap to make too! I got both my Holy Cow and my coconut milk from Home Bargains for less than £1 each and the chickpeas were around £1 in Tesco’s for a big one kilo bag.
Have you ever made chickpea soup and do you like the flavour? What other “mistakes” have you made in the kitchen that lead to tasty meals?
Dislaimer: the guys at Knorr sent me a bunch of tasty cubes the other week but the opinions expressed in this blog post are all my own. For more soup inspiration, do check their recipe section.
Mama's Haven 
oohhhhh that sounds really tasty. It is amazing how using the “wrong” ingredient can turn out so right! x
This looks DELISH! I have posted several soup recipes this winter. If you’re interested you can find me at insidekelskitchen.wordpress.com. Have a great day!
I love making soups and often use lentils. I sometimes use chickpeas too, but usually that means chucking in a tin near the end to make the soup extra filling, and then blending it down. Glad your mistake turned out okay!
I love chickpeas and coconut so this sounds like a winning mistake to me!
I am such a lazy cook – I have never made my own soup. I do need to try it though
This soup sounds delicious and perfect for a starter or lunch.I like the addition of the spices.
My funniest mistake was adding a couple of red cabbage leafs into my veggies soup, which turned the whole thing ink-blue. Delicious blue soup though 🙂
I love a good winter warmer soup, especially when it was the result of a happy accident!
Wow- your ‘mistake’ soup looks like a huge success! Well done on saving the day!!
Wow! This sounds delicious. I really should be more adventurous in the kitchen xx
Oh yum, I could eat that now. I love a good soup
Sounds delicious 😊
Delicious soup idea, perfect for this time of year!
I’m a huge soup fan and those Knorr cubes are perfect for adding flavour to the ones I make – the ham one is my favourite x
Very clever idea! Making soup has always daunted me, but you have some great tips 🙂 Perfect for the cold weather 🙂 x
Nope never made it. I’m not a fan of cooking to be honest. I like to have easy meals that don’t take too much time.
I love chickpeas but haven’t tried them in soup before. This sounds delicious so I’ll definitely be giving it a try.
Laura x
Oh this sounds so good. I make my own soup quite a bit using Knorr cubes too! I have a soup maker which is fab.Kaz x
I love lentil soup. I have never tried chickpea soup though, maybe you’re onto something
I do love it when a mistake turns into a triumph! Those lentils are sneaky types. I discovered that there are all different sorts of brown ones, which take different amounts of time to cook. It’s a minefield!
I’m a sucker for a homemade meals, I love cooking souping too. Thats a fantastic thing about cooking, getting things wrong and transforming them into other things. I love lentils, chickpeas both under rated Yummy x