Chickpea Noodle Soup. (Photo by Rey Lopez for The Washington Post)
You may not know Julia Turshen personally, but read one of her recipes - or, better yet, one of her cookbooks - and you’ll feel like you do. Turshen is one of those food writers who seems to always be saying, in one way or another, "You got this,” and you immediately believe her.
I consider myself fortunate to know her in real life. (We also enlisted her to fill in for G. Daniela Galarza on the Eat Voraciously newsletter for a few months this year.) And just in case you’re wondering, she’s one of those what-you-see-is-what-you-get people, just as unassuming in person as she is on the page.
In fact, when I asked her to talk about just how she achieves her friendly and flexible style in her writing, she was almost too modest to answer. "I don’t really know any other way,” she told me. "It is something I think about, meeting people where they are.”
In her new book, "What Goes With What” (which made our list of the year’s best cookbooks), Turshen bases all her recipes on charts, showing that, say, any brothy soup can start with sautéing some aromatic vegetables and other flavourings in olive oil, adding liquid, adding "things that can simmer until soft” (greens, pasta, beans, meatballs and the like) and sprinkling on some toppings before ladling it out. She drew and lettered all the charts by hand, and she took all her own recipe photos, in both cases making the book so much more approachable than it might have otherwise been.
Turshen is always looking out for ways to make cooking easier, faster and more fun. "Home cooks are some of the most undervalued people, and the labour they do is so underappreciated,” she said. "We don’t have prep cooks and dishwashers.” She knows that if she - someone who writes cookbooks for a living, doesn’t have kids, has a big kitchen, financial security and time - doesn’t make homemade stock all the time, "I know other people aren’t, either.”
That’s why she’s eager to suggest smart shortcut products. And when it comes to stock - and therefore brothy soups - her favourite such product is also one of mine: Better Than Bouillon, a potent seasoning paste that comes in many flavours, including several excellent vegetarian ones. "If I had a dollar for each time I’ve mentioned it in my cooking classes, I’d have a lot of dollars,” she writes in her book. "Let me clarify that this is not a sponsored essay: I just love the stuff and think it’s a great example of cooking smarter, not harder.”
The first recipe in her book that uses Better Than Bouillon is what she calls "fastest chicken noodle soup,” but I also know how flexible and supportive she is about substitutions and adaptations, so I was confident making a vegetarian version with chickpeas - and with Better Than Bouillon’s No Chicken Base. By whisking 2 tablespoons of it into the soup, you turn what can sometimes be a labour of love into a speedy weeknight dish, especially with canned chickpeas.
Another touch that makes all the difference: A couple garlic cloves, grated or pressed, get stirred in the soup at the very end, right before you top with herbs. Much like a squeeze of lemon or lime, the garlic brightens the soup, but it also adds depth and roundness to the broth.
Armed with Turshen’s tips and charts and recipes and guidance, the next time you make this soup or virtually any other, I bet you’ll be thinking, "I’ve got this.” And you will.
Photo by Rey Lopez for The Washington Post
Chickpea noodle Soup
This quick soup stars chickpeas and noodles, in a base that gets much of its flavour from a potent seasoning paste (made by Better Than Bouillon) and a finishing touch of raw garlic and herbs. If you’d like, you can double down on the chickpeas and increase the protein (while making this gluten-free and vegan) by using chickpea noodles (see Substitutions).
Servings: 8 (makes about 12 cups)
Total time: 30 mins
Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. The soup will thicken in storage as the noodles absorb the broth; add water, if desired, when reheating.
Substitutions: To make it vegan >> use egg-free wide ribbon noodles or fettuccine. To make it gluten-free >> use chickpea noodles (such as Al Dente brand) or rice noodles. Chickpeas >> cannellini, navy, Great Northern or other white beans. Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base >> Better Than Bouillon Seasoned Vegetable Base or shiro (white) miso. Canned chickpeas >> home-cooked chickpeas.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large carrots (12 ounces total), scrubbed and cut into bite-size pieces
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste
Two (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added chickpeas (3 cups total), rinsed and drained
10 cups water
2 tablespoons Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base
12 ounces egg noodles
2 garlic cloves, finely grated or pressed
Chopped fresh dill and/or flat-leaf parsley, for serving
DIRECTIONS
In a Dutch oven or other large, heavy pot over medium-high heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the carrots, garlic powder and paprika and stir to combine.
Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the chickpeas, stir to combine, and cook until coated in the oil, 30 seconds.
Add the water and stir in the Better Than Bouillon. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium. Stir in the noodles and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 6 minutes.
Stir in the garlic, taste, and season with more salt if needed. Serve hot, with the herbs sprinkled on top.
Nutritional information per serving (1 1/2 cups): 354 calories, 10 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 54 g carbohydrates, 654 mg sodium, 36 mg cholesterol, 12 g protein, 7 g fiber, 3 g sugar.
This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.
Based on a recipe in "What Goes With What” by Julia Turshen (Flatiron Books, 2024).
