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Chickpea Portobello Soup

This recipe came about serendipitously by combining leftover chickpea gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance with broth from cooking seitan. I ended up adding some extras. I think it would be superb with some red wine and wild rice in the broth, but haven’t tried that yet.


1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 tsp. mustard seeds
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained (or 1-16 oz. can drained and rinsed)
2 pinches ground cumin
2 pinches paprika
2 pinches dried thyme
1 pinch dried rosemary
1 pinch dried oregano
1 pinch ground coriander
1 pinch ginger
8 cups water
4 Tbsp. soy sauce
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 veggie bullion cubes
¼ cup nutritional yeast
2 peeled and cubed potatoes
½ cup pearled barley
½ cap (or more) Portobello mushroom, diced

Heat a large nonstick soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and mustard seeds, sauté until nicely browned. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add in the chickpeas, spices and 2 cups of water and deglaze the bottom of the pan. With a potato masher or immersion blender, puree until it is mostly smooth (some whole beans and pieces of onion are fine). Add the remaining 6 cups of water, and all other ingredients, and bring to a simmer for 20-30 minutes until the potato chunks and barley are done. This soup will thicken the second day (I think it’s even tastier) and is excellent for dunking toast.