Revithada – Traditional chickpea soup
Greek style
Pulses are used several times per week in the Greek cuisine. They are an essential part of the Mediterranean kitchen, of a balanced vegan or vegetarian diet and thus, of a healthy diet. There are hundreds of different chickpea recipes across South Europe, especially in the different islands. Here is one of the simplest ones, “Revithada”.
Chickpea soup or “Revithada” in Greek, was and still is a favorite dish in our family for the cold winter days. It is a very simple, vegan recipe of the Mediterranean kitchen. I remember my father, in his effort to encourage us to eat our full meal he was telling us that “If you eat chickpeas you will have big boobs!” LOL!!! Of course that’s a myth, but what a great way to trick your children to eat a healthy meal.
Chickpeas are a rich source of calcium and protein. This chickpea recipe is also low in fat and carbohydrates, which makes it great for people with high cholesterol and diabetes. Below, you will also find ways to make it even tastier or accompany it with several healthy side dishes so as to add variety and extra taste in your meals.
Preparation: 10min
Cooking time: 1h
Difficulty: Easy
Recipe
Ingredients for 4 people
1 cup dry chickpeas
2 litters of water
1 tbsp. dried dill
¼ cup rice
Lemon juice from 1 lemon
4-5 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Soak the chickpeas overnight in cold water.
- The next day, boil the chickpeas together with the chopped onion and a bit of salt in medium-low fire until they are almost done.
- Add the rice, the lemon juice and keep cooking until the rice is done.
- Switch off the fire and add the olive oil, the dill and the pepper.
- Mix well and let the food stay for 5min before serving it.
Tips
- After serving it add some extra lemon or fresh black pepper, to make it even tastier.
- For children: Serve it as a soup with small pieces of fresh bread in.
- For adults: You can enjoy it as a soup and accompany it with bread, any kind of olives, or a salty fish like smoked trout, sardines, lacquer or canned kalamaria and a cold white wine.
- A variant of this recipe for meat lovers is to add some bone broth. You can simply replace 1 liter of water with 1 liter of bone broth and follow the recipe as it is. An even easier alternative is to add chicken or beef broth (bouillon), although it’s not the healthiest option and definitely not my preferred one.
Nutritional Value
Serving 1 cup | Calories: 365| Total carbohydrates: 44.7g|Sugars: 8.4g| Fiber: 9.9g| Protein: 11.1g| Total fat: 17.2g|Saturated fat: 2.3g| Calcium: 81mg|Iron: 4mg|Potassium: 550mg |Cholesterol: 0mg| Sodium: 597mg