Golden Chickpea and Polish Sausage Soup

Living more French means eating more vegetables.  What better way to get more vegetables to your diet than soup?  I've been making soup recently for Sunday evening dinners and then have lots of leftovers for healthy lunches throughout the week.  This one was inspired by the book, 400 soups, but I changed so much in the recipe it morphed into something totally, and deliciously, different.  I'm sending this soup over to Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sunday round-up!

Golden Chickpea and Polish Sausage Soup by Joie de vivre

Ingredients:

2 onions, cut in half, then sliced into half moons

3 big cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tbls. olive oil

1 1/2 pints chicken stock

2 15oz. cans chopped tomatoes

2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed, peeled, and chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 1/2c. chickpeas, cooked

small pinch of saffron

pinch of chili powder

1 lb. Polish sausage, cut into bite sized chunks

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Heat olive oil in a large stock pot.  Saute the onions until they begin to brown.  Add the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.

2.  Add the saffron and chili powder.  Stir.

3.  Add the chicken stock, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, and chopped tomatoes.  Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, approximately 20 minutes depending on the size of your sweet potato pieces.

4.  Add sliced sausage and simmer for 5-10 more minutes.

5.  Taste the soup and add salt and pepper to taste.