Recipe of the week: Chickpea soup with tomatoes and beet greens

Getting to know a bit about plant families can be enormously freeing for a cook, said Deborah Madison in Vegetable Literacy (Ten Speed Press). Any garden you tend yourself “can’t help but teach you about itself,” and two of the principal lessons it provides are that many plants are closely related and that members of the same family tend to deliver similar culinary effects.

Consider chard, beet greens, and spinach. All are members of a plant subfamily known as goosefoots—because the leaves resemble a goose’s foot. If the spinach in your garden has withered, you should be unafraid to replace it in a recipe with another goosefoot or a relative from its larger tribe, the amaranths.

The soup below offers a prime chance to start with such substitutions. The combination of greens and chickpeas occurs in many dishes across many cultures, and though beet greens are called for here, almost any amaranth will complement the chickpeas nicely.

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Chickpeas from a can are convenient, but these versatile legumes are so much better when you cook them yourself. In fact, “they alone justify getting a pressure cooker if you haven’t one already,” because using one greatly reduces the cooking time.

Recipe of the week

Chickpea soup with tomatoes and beet greens

• 3 tbsp olive oil, plus more for toasts
• 1 onion, chopped into ½-inch pieces
• 2 celery stalks with leaves, stalks diced and leaves chopped
• 2 large cloves garlic, 1 smashed, 1 halved
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley, plus more for garnish
• 1 heaping tbsp chopped oregano, or 1 tsp dried
• 1 large thyme sprig, or good-size pinch of dried thyme
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• One 15-oz can organic diced tomatoes
• One 15-oz can or 1½ cups cooked chickpeas
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, or water
• Several cups torn greens, such as beet greens, chard, amaranth, or spinach
• 2 slices whole-wheat country bread

In a soup pot, heat the 3 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery and celery leaves, smashed garlic, parsley, oregano, and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Mash in tomato paste and cook for a few minutes. Add tomatoes and chickpeas and season with 1 tsp salt. Add stock. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the flavors meld and soften, 30 minutes to 1 hour. (The soup can also be refrigerated overnight at this point.)

Rewarm soup, if necessary, and stir in greens, cooking them until softened and tender. Season to taste. Just before serving, toast the bread. Rub toasts with halved garlic clove, brush with oil, and tear into pieces. Ladle the soup into bowls. Submerge some torn toast pieces in the soup so that they soak up juices and add texture. Dribble oil into each bowl and add parsley. Serves 4 generously.