My daughter shared this wonderful soup recipe with me. She made it for her Wednesday Soup Night at her church and it was a real winner! It's fast and easy to throw together, too.

Hobbit Shire Soup

2 cans chickpeas. Do not drain!
1/2 cup water
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes in juice
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 TBSP. Smart Balance margarine
1 pkg. (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach
1 cup very small whole wheat pasta (I used whole wheat orzo)
handful of capers, or a splash of vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil

Saute garlic & onion in olive oil. Add chickpeas w/liquid. Heat 5-7 minutes. Add spinach and tomatoes. Add butter and water. Add capers. Bring to boil and add pasta. Let simmer until pasta is tender and soup is thickened. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

This recipe makes about 6 servings, but can be easily adjusted to serve more.

Sounds like a mock Italian Wedding soup! Def gonna try this...

I need to make this just cause of the name! Although I'll probably omit the Smart Balance and just use olive oil....

the name of this is so cute. I wonder if my kids would eat it just for the name...

This is fabulous! I just made it for lunch bc I don't think dh would eat it with all the spinach in it! I didn't have orzo(well, I am not eating wheat so they don't make brown rice orzo) I crushed up some tinkyada brown rice fusilli in place of it. I also had to add more like 2c of water to the soup and I cooked my spinach first to be sure it was still good as it has been in the freezer so long I thought it may be freezer burnt but it wasnt! and I added 2 cubes of not-beef boullion. I also left out the smart balance and used 1tbs of olive oil only to sautee the onion and garlic. OH, and I didn't have capers and couldn't find my vinegar so I used old red wine that I use for cooking that is definitely vinegar by now! LOL

This is definitely a keeper! Next time I may only use 1 can of beans just to cut back my calories

YUM! 5 stars! Thanks Cottage!

This recipe was fantastic. I made it this week and had to stop myself from eating it! Thanks so much!

So, I decided to make this recipe again tonight and I didn't have any old wine, and I had bought capers today at TJ's.... either I don't like capers like I thought I did or I got a bad jar! I have only eaten them in things and when I took a bite of one- yuck-o.

Soups still cooking though so maybe they will be ok in it!

Making this tomorrow!

OMG this is sooo good that even my picky DW ate it!

A few modifications that I made: I added some crushed red pepper flakes to the onion/garlic saute. I also used 16 oz of spinach, a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes with the juice and 1.5 cups of veggie stock. I couldn't find orzo so I used brown rice pasta in elbow shape. I also served it topped with a little grated Parmesan cheese.

A++++

I'm thinking of this with some Chicken added and maybe brown rice