No bland chickpea soup in my world! Exploding with flavour, this tastes like your favourite Chicken Shawarma – except it’s in soup form with lamb and chickpeas. Filling, nutritious and quick to make!
Chickpea soup with flavour explosion!
I had every intention of making a wholesome, chickpea and vegetable soup.
I really, really tried to get excited about it.
It is possible to make a great meat-free chickpea soup (I promise I will share mine one day!). But, but, but…. I wanted kapow flavours. Actually, I was really tempted to do the long haul drive for a good laksa fix. I felt like I deserved it. (But then, I always feel I deserve it….)
So I compromised. Chickpeas. Veggie loaded – there’s a whole bunch of spinach in this, plus carrots plus onion (yes that counts towards your daily veggie intake, I checked!). Lamb for protein, cooked with my Chicken Shawarma spice mix – wait until you smell this part!!!! It’s SO GOOD!
Shawarma Spice Mix
This is the same shawarma spice mix I use for Chicken Shawarma, a long standing reader favourite. The combination of spices in this is intoxicating!
Oh boy. If you like kapow flavours, or if you are dubious about chickpea soups having been scarred by bland ones in the past, this Lamb Shawarma Chickpea Soup is for you!! It’s really fragrant, the soup itself is quite intense from both the spices and also the lamb. It’s hearty, almost stew-like. Actually, I didn’t know whether to call this a stew or soup.
Because the soup flavouring is from the Shawarma Spice Mix, there’s no need to simmer this for ages. Just long enough for the carrot to become tender. Oh, also, I use canned chickpeas here. Speedy, unplanned meal. 🙂
But if you do have the foresight to plan and want to take it over the top, add a side of homemade flatbreads (simple, no yeast!) or make this mind blowingly easy crusty Artisan bread.
Update: I recently created a similar but different variation of this soup in the form of Beef & Lentil Soup. This was has more Moroccan-inspired flavours. Give it a try too!
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Chickpea Lamb Shawarma Soup
Ingredients
Spices:
- 2 tsp EACH cumin powder, coriander, paprika
- 1 tsp cardamon powder (can omit if you don’t have)
- ¼ tsp cinnamon powder
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
Soup:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 onion , finely chopped
- 500 g / 1 lb lamb mince (ground lamb, or beef) (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 carrots , peeled and chopped (about size of chickpeas)
- 600 g / 21 oz canned chickpeas , drained and rinsed (1.5 standard cans, Note 2)
- 400 g / 14 oz can crushed tomato
- 3 cups / 750 ml chicken broth / stock
- 1 bunch spinach , roughly chopped (about 4 packed cups) (wilts a lot)
Garnishes (highly recommended):
- Plain yoghurt (or sour cream)
- Chopped fresh coriander / cilantro
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook for 1 minute until starting to turn translucent.
- Add lamb and cook, breaking it up as you go. When it has mostly turned from pink to light brown, add spices.
- Cook for 1 minute, then add tomato paste and cook for another 1 minute. (It smells amazing!)
- Add carrots, chickpeas, tomato and broth. Stir and bring to simmer.
- Cover with lid, lower heat so it is bubbling energetically but not crazy rapidly. Cook for 10 minutes until carrot is tender but not super soft – I like it to have a bit of bite still, if you want super soft, keep cooking.
- Stir through spinach. Once wilted, adjust salt, pepper and spiciness (cayenne) to taste, and water if you want more liquid.
- Ladle into bowls, add a dollop of yoghurt and a generous sprinkling of coriander. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
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Life of Dozer
Spent my afternoon tea break trying to teach him to hold a flower in his mouth, just because I think it would be so cute! But once he realised it wasn’t edible, he was completely uninterested. I give up.
U forgot to include the crushed tomatoes the body of the recipe 😒😔
I’ve been making this for several years and everyone loves it….I sub ground turkey which is easier to find where I live. I just made a double recipe for a friends golf trip next month and plan to freeze it for the first time. Anyone freeze it and wondering how it worked out..??
I was looking for a way to use a leftover slow roasted lamb leg, & came across this recipe. I recommend giving it a crack, it worked incredibly well for me. I used the whole two tins of chickpeas as the lamb was a tad under 500g, & served with a dollop of Greek yoghurt & fresh baked sourdough *drool* my brain was struggling to comprehend just how awesome this meal was!
I just wanted to say thank you for this recipe. It is easily my favourite soup right now! I can highly recommend using left over lamb from a Sunday roast instead of mince if you have it also. I add a little cornflour to give the soup a thicker, smoother taste!
I just wanted to say thank you for this recipe. It is easily my favourite soup right now! I can highly recommend using left over lamb from a Sunday roast instead of mince if you have it also. I add a little cornflour to give the soup a thicker, smoother taste!
Amazing!! I’ve been eyeing off this recipe for ages and it did NOT disappoint!! Choosing not to eat lamb or beef much at the moment so made it with chicken instead; while it didn’t look as brown and luscious, it tasted amazing. Once I started cooking I also realised I didn’t have carrots or chickpeas (!!) so substituted zucchini and butter beans. (Spices/cooking method etc kept the same.) Absolutely delicious; warm and comforting, so nice for autumn, although a sunny day here in Victoria. Seemed to make heaps of soup and very veggie-rich!! Looking forward to repeating it with a few more ingredients from the recipe next time!!
This sounds delicious. I have white beans from a local grower and I will sub those for the chick peas. The chick peas will go into the air fryer to become snacks.
soup is so rich and tasty ! saved my chickpeas!!!
Was getting bored of our mid week meals so made the chicken lasagna one night and this shwarma soup tonight. Nice to have a change from beef mince or chicken. Served with part baked rolls.
I have some white beans to cook in the pantry. I think they would work as well as the chickpeas in this soup. And, being frugal, I always have chopped spinach in the freezer and can and a small chunk of that package rather than buying fresh. Use what you have!
A quick and easy, healthy and absolutely delicious recipe. I used lamb mince (can’t imagine it with different protein) and the combination of fresh Mediterranean flavours was magic. As with all Nagi’s recipes, I reduced the cayenne pepper to about 50% to make it perfect for my tender palate. My husband loved the soup too and we look forward to leftovers tonight. Thank you Nagi,
Can confirm that using pork mince for this works very well. I had the mince out for dinner anyway then came across this recipe. Super tasty and enough for a couple of lunches. Also made your flatbreads to go with it.
This soup turned out so well! It was delicious, filling and incredibly comforting. The mix of ingredients made it both nutritious and satisfying. Definitely one I’ll make again.
This is fabulous, sooo much flavor, and easy to make. I did add a bag of thawed/frozen mixed vegetables, wonderful. Thank you!
I made this for the first time last night for my soup club at work today. Knowing the Recipe Tin recipes never disappoint, I figured I’d be ok. I have never had so many comments on my soups before! Everyone wanted the recipe, andI was told that this was the best soup of the season!
If this had some lentils alongside the chickpea and lamb this is essentially “harira soup”! Recommend you try with green lentils in it also. Super high protein but still light and cozy
Due to apparently not enough animal products, I’ve found myself with b vitamin deficiency anaemia. Dr encouraged me to ensure I’m having ‘triple protein’ meals with meat, diary and legumes/grains with protein. With a big dollop of Greek yogurt (I upped the cayenne to balance the extra dairy). This 100% fits the bill, but I pushed it to four by stirring in/serving with some quinoa too (a little like a rice soup/stew). Bloody beautiful.
Nagi,
I have both your cookbooks and after trying this recipe I’ll be braver with the recipes! So good! Of course I always head to Dozers section before cooking. So fun. I did add some couscous as a thickener, worked nicely!
Awesome recipe. I make a lower carb, lower sodium, lower heartburn version as follows and it is also amazing. Replace chickpeas with 1.5 cups eggplant (or zucchini), delete carrots, replace onion with 1/4 cup diced celery, add 1 cup chopped mild peppers (e.g. cubanell or poblano). Obviously use no-sodium tomatoes and chicken broth. Don’t skip the spinach and certainly make sure to add a dollop of non-fat plain greek yogurt to each bowl.
There was no lamb mince at the shop, so I bought 2 lamb shanks instead. Cooked for 2 hours in spiced broth with tomato paste and tomatoes. Shredded lamb of shanks. Then added in the carrot, beans and spinach to finish. Super tasty as marrow from shanks has infiltrated the stock.