Sunday, March 29, 2009

Roasted Eggplant Soup






I had a couple of Chinese eggplants in the bottom of my fridge, and wanted to use them in a soup, although they would have been pretty kick ass in a stir fry. This soup tasted good too though. First, roast the veggies, and that imparts a really nice flavour to the soup. This week is going to be pretty stressful for me with school, so I hope this soup lasts for when I don't have time to make a big meal. Also, my camera is acting up, just after I took these pictures it shut off and wouldn't turn back on...hmm


Ingredients


3 medium tomatoes, halved
2 Chinese eggplants (or 1 large eggplant)
1 onion
6 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
4 cups (or more) vegetable stock
1 cup soy milk



Method


Preheat oven to 400°F.
Cut eggplant in half, lengthwise
Quarter the onion, peel the garlic, and place them in a baking pan.
Drizzle with oil
Roast in the oven for about 40 minutes.
Take them from the oven, scoop out the eggplant meat and put in a big pot on the stove, add the other veggies, and the thyme.
Pour in veggie stock, and bring to a boil.
Simmer for about 40 minutes.
Blend with a hand blender, and stir in soy milk.
Add remaining roasted vegetables and thyme to same saucepan. Add 4 cups chicken stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook until onion is very tender, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly.





Friday, March 27, 2009

Vegan Interview!


I'm sorry for the terrible picture, but if you can't tell, these are the Balsamic Chocolate Cookies I made a while ago. I didn't just make these for any reason, I made these to bring to an interview I did for a friend in a film and television program. He need to interview someone, and I guess he found it interesting that I wrote this little ol' blog here. The interview was really cool, it seemed like a REAL interview, there were camera men, an interviewer, producers, so many jobs I don't even know what they were all doing. I was pretty nervous, but luckily I had the questions before hand, and could prepare some ideas.
Most of the questions asked why I was vegan, how I decided to be a vegan, etc etc. It was a pretty cool chance to share some information about veganism, at least to the people in the room, so I hope I made sense and didn't ramble! My favorite question was "what type of animal would you be if you could choose?" This one made me laugh, as if all vegans want to BECOME animals ahah. But it was all in good fun. And I would be an albatross, in case you want to know. They're awesome.

Oh Martha



Hey there, these bad boys are from a recipe off of Martha Stewart's website, they're a variation of her Blondie recipe. I have to say, I expected a bit more from Martha. And it's not just me, when I read the comments below, people had the same complaints I had: too hard, not moist enough. For something that is the answer to a brownie, I expected a bit more. Well, I veganized her recipe, and used peanut butter instead of margarine, so maybe that accounted for the change. So I won't stop believing in you yet Martha. My sister loved them though, and I had no complaints about the flavour, just the texture.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Banana Oat Bundles...of JOY!



I love bananas, and I love oats, so when I found this recipe:
I knew I would love them. They're from Dreena's Vegan Recipes, and aren't difficult at all to make. My mom flipped when she realized I'd used the last of the bananas, but she stopped complaining after she tasted one...heh heh heh.


Ingredients

1 1/4 cup of oats
1 cup of kamut flour
1/4 of a cup of 100% Canadian Maple Syrup (How come the dollar sign comes before the number...example:$2.00, but the percentage sign comes after?)
1/4 tsp of nutmeg
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3 bananas, pureed
1 tsp of pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp of olive oil
Method

Preheat oven to 350degrees
Puree bananas, combine with maple syrup, vanilla, and oil, mix well
In another bowl combine dry ingredients, mix well.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and...mix well!
Spoon tbsp-fulls of mixture onto a prepared baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes

This makes about 15 bundles


Enjoy!

Roasted Sweet Potato and Apple Soup


Hello hello! A while ago I had this amazing bowl of curried sweet potato and apple soup from Fresh, and I've been craving it ever since. So I tried making it for lunch today, and while it wasn't exactly the same (Fresh's is so damn delicious!) I'm very happy with mine.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes
1 large onion
2 apples
3 cloves of garlic
pepper
1-2 tbsp of olive oil
1/4 of a package of silken tofu
2-3 cups of water (or veggie stock)

Method

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Chop potato into cubes
Quarter the onion
Peel, core, and chop the apples
Put in roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil and pepper
Roast for about 1/2 an hour, stirring around the veggies every 10 minutes or so.
When 30 minutes are up, transfer into a large soup pot, add tofu and water slowly and blend
Bring to a boil for about 10 minutes and serve!
Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

No New Recipe, Sorry!

What a weekend! Friday night, my friends and I went to the Gaslight Anthem show at the Opera House, had an amazing time, and then the next day headed off to London to see them play at Call the Office. They were so good live, and we were right at the front both nights. We ended up getting a hotel and staying over night. Crazy fun road trip, but my point is I havent been bakin' or cookin' too much for the past couple of days. However, on Firday afternoon I tried out VeganDad's Mini Irish Stew recipes, and man were they good! Follow this link to the recipe:http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2009/03/mini-irish-pies.html. I added some grated, cooked seitan into the recipe, and it added a ground beef texture to the mix. Next time I'd add more soy milk or something to mine, to make them more gravy-ish, and I also thought mushrooms would be awesome in these. Try them!

(they're just so cute!)

Friday, March 20, 2009

Beet Muffins on the First Day of Spring!



Today is the Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring! This morning I was thinking about zucchini muffins as I was trying my best to make beet, cranberry, and apple juice (without a juicer grrrrrr) when it hit me: Why haven't I heard of beet muffins?? A quick google search found sample recipes, but not many, and none that jumped out at me. So I just made zucchini muffin batter, instead of shredded zucchini, shredded beets instead! Sooo good. When I mixed everything together, the batter was this amazing vibrant pink, which made me so excited. When my sister woke up and came down to the kitchen, I forced her to look at their awesomeness. She thought the idea of beet muffins was repulsive, but after she tasted them she liked them. Apparently, beets are among the most nutritious veggies out there, so I'm glad I love them!


Beet Muffins

2 cups of kamut flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
¼ of a tsp of nutmeg

1/4 of a cup of mixture of maple syrup and brown rice syrup
1 tbsp of flax seeds + 3 tbsp of water (blend it up!)
1 cup of shredded raw beets
1 tbsp of lemon zest
1 tsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of agave nectar
1 ¼ of a cup of soymilk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


Mix dry ingredients together
Mix wet ingredients together
Mix wet into dry
Add in shredded beets
Spoon into muffin trays.


Bake for about 25 minutes until metal stick comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Mushroom Soup and Soda Bread Take II


Last night I was coming home from school with two of my friends, and for a while we were talking about bunny friend named Mushroom. I've never had the pleasure of meeting her furry pal, but he sounds hilarious...always binkying, hopping around, getting into bunny trouble. So with all this Mushroom talk, I began to think about one of my favorite soups: mushroom soup! So tonight's dinner is soup accompanied by a slice of another loaf of soda bread. This mushroom soup wasn't quite as creamy as I would have liked, but with each spoonful I enjoyed it more and more.

Mushroom Soup Ingredients
1 tsp of olive oil
About 1 pound of button mushrooms
2 onions
2 cups of water
1 1/2 tsp of dill
1 tbsp of paprika
1 tsp of ainse
black pepper
1.5 tbsp of Bragg's soy sauce
2 cups of water
2 tbsp of olive oil
3 tbsp of gluten free flour (I used Kamut)
1 cucp of soymilk
Method

In a large soup pot, cook onions in a bit of water until they are soft
Add the mushrooms, dill, paprika, ainse, and pepper, cook for about 5 minutes
Add in the soy sauce, water, and cook covered for about 15 minutes.
In a sauce pan, heat oil, and add flour, stirring with a fork. Slowly add the soymilk and continue to stir.
Add to the soup, cook for another 10 minutes.
Soda Bread Ingredients

Okay, so while I enjoyed my last soda bread, I really slacked off in its creation...and I knew it could be improved. This time, I used flax seeds as an egg substitute, and it wasn't as sweet.

1 cup of kamut flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 of a cup quinoa flour
1/3 of a cup corn meal
2 tsp of corn starch

Egg replacer for 2 eggs
3/4 of a cup soymilk
1 tsp of apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp of oil

Soda Bread Method

Mix dry ingredients
Mix wet ingredients
Mix together
(complicated, I know)
Form into a ball, plop onto a flour-dusted baking pan, slash a cross over top, and lightly dust with more flour
Pop in the oven for 30 minutes at 350F
Dunk in Soup.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Roasted Red Pepper Soup


Mmm Mmm I love the smell of soup in the morning, it smells like victory!

Oh wait, no, it doesn't, it smells like Roasted Red Pepper Soup.


I wanted to make roasted pepper soup, and I wanted to use green peppers (because it's St Patrick's Day) but I think red peppers have a much sweeter taste, which would be better as soup. I had a little taste of the soup (it's only 9 in the morning!) and I can't wait to eat it for dinner.


Ingredients


3 red peppers
2 cloves of garlic
1 very large carrot
1/2 a large sweet potato
1 stalk of celery
1 onion
4 cups of veggie broth (I used low sodium)
2 tomatoes
1/2 tsp of thyme
black pepper


Method


Roast the red peppers by cutting them in half and cooking them in the oven under the broiler until the skin is blackened (not too blackened, apparently its carcinogenic). Pop the cloves of garlic out of their skins and place alongside the peppers to roast.


Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a large soup pot on the stove

Chop the rest of the veggies, and put them all except the tomatoes in the pot, stirring often. Leave them there until to "sweat". That's right you want sweaty veggies.

Keep checking the peppers, turning them to evenly cook them

Once they're nice and roasty, peel off the skins and remove seeds, chop and add the the pot.

Let them all cook together until the carrots and potatoes are soft

Add the tomatoes, cook until everything's soft.

Then, using a hand blender (or let it all cool and put in whatever blender you use) blend it all up!

Add the thyme, and the black pepper.


Enjoy!

Monday, March 16, 2009


Today my parents roasted a turkey, which sometimes proves to be difficult for me, navigating my way through a meal based on meat. Luckily they also made turnips, green beans, mashed potatoes, mashed yams, and cabbage salad. Lots of potatoes and cabbage = celebrating our Irish-ness. I also marinated some extra firm tofu in some Bragg's, apple cider vinegar, with a splash of water for about 1/2 an hour. I read a recipe from Fatfree Vegan for these little potato balls called colcannon puffs. Mine turned out quite different then hers did, and I would hesitate to call them colcannon, so I'll just say they're colcannon inspired. Man oh man were they delicious.


Ingredients

6 oz of baby spinach

4 large scoops of mashed potatoes

2 tbsp of nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp of salt

1 tsp of thyme

1 tsp of rosemary

black pepper to taste


Method


Mix all the ingredients on a bowl

Scoop about 1 tbsp at a time onto a baking pan

bake at 425F for 20 minutes

Cook under the broiler for about 5 minutes


Deeelicious!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Here Come The Irish

What a day, what a day. Last night I was at the Brutal Knights show, and didn't get home til late. I slept in, had my usual mug of hot lemon water, and went for a run. I often try and bring some stale flatbreads or bread to feed the ducks and Canadian geese I see along my way. When I got home, I made some orange, carrot and ginger juice, and headed off to hot yoga. So I had a long day and wanted a substantial meal for dinner. Since St. Patrick's Day is coming up, I decided to make Irish stew and soda bread! The stew is inspired from this recipe from FatFree Vegan http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/03/irish-white-bean-and-cabbage-stew.html




Irish Stew

6 cups of vegetable stock
1 cup of water
2 large potatoes
3 very large carrots
1 large onion
3 stalks of celery
1/3 of a cup of barley
1 tsp of ainse
1 tsp of thyme
black pepper
2 tomatoes, chopped
fresh parsley


Chop the carrot, onion, potato, celery, and veggie stock. Put in a large soup pot.
Add barley and seasonings, cover, and bring to a boil.
Once it is boiling nicely, reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 45 minutes.
For the last 15 minutes, remove the lid of the pot and add the parsley and tomatoes.
While it's cooking...make the bread!





Soda Bread


Dry Ingredients

3/4 of a cup of kamut flour
1/3 of a cup of flax meal
1/3 of a cup of quinoa flour
1/3 of a cup of cornmeal
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder


Wet Ingredients

1 banana
3/4 of a cup of almond milk
1 tsp of apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp of olive oil


Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl.
In another, combine the milk and cider, then add a mashed banana (this is a big deviation from traditional soda bread, but I was too lazy to make a flax egg replacer. Add the olive oil, and mix well.

Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring with a spatula. I had to add more flour to thicken the mixture. Shape into a ball, sprinkle flour onto a baking pan, and then put the dough onto it. Cut a cross on the surface of the dough to make it officially Irish soda bread! There are several main different types of soda bread, this is closer to "wheaten bread" from Northern Ireland. The cross on the top of the loaf was apparently to ward off evil.


I'm not entirely satisfied with the bread, it was definitely an experiment because I made it without wheat flours, but it was tasty and I'd make it again.


Friday, March 13, 2009

I don't even know where to start.
WARNING: This is going to be quite the post.


So the 13th was my mom's birthday, and I pulled out all the stops. I wanted her to have a great birthday, without having to worry about eating something that would make her sick, or something that would make her have to take gravol. Being allergic to wheat, sugar, and dairy, I had to hunt around for a special cake for her to eat. For the last couple of years, we didn't know about any vegan, wheat free bakeries, and I hadn't really started experimenting with vegan gf alternatives. Thanks to an AMAZING friend who has a gluten allergy: (http://omgicanbakeglutenfree.blogspot.com/), I went to a bake shop/vegan eatery by Bathurst and Bloor Streets called Kensington Bakery. GO THERE!!!!
I first went there last Monday, didn't have cash on me (they don't take debit), so I came back on Wednesday to order. I chose a vegan, gluten free spelt chocolate cake, sweetened with maple syrup, and ordered it to be ready to be picked up this morning.


So Wednesday night, I came home from working with a friend at the gym, and on the way I picked up agar agar, dates, an organic lemon. I rushed home, made my mom's present of her favorite treats: macaroons. They were based on THIS RECIPE:


http://eatnveganintoronto.blogspot.com/2009/02/simple-vegan-macaroons.html that I made in February. This time, I tried different flavours like chocolate (added cacao powder), lemon (added organic lemon zest and juice), double coconut (coconut milk), ginger and orange (ginger, orange...), and maple (100% Canadian Maple Syrup).




Just in case the cake wasn't all we hoped it would be, I decided to make a back up. Using the agar, I made Jello Fruit Cake. I'll post the recipe soon!


I also made a sort of fruit pudding/sorbet, just bananas pureed with coconut milk, and pureed strawberries. Just pop them in the freezer and you have a sweet treat.




Sooo flash forward until today. This morning, I missioned it downtown at 8, picked up the cake, and brought it home and hid it. Which was a shame because it was a glorious cake, vanilla on the outside, chocolate on the inside, and chocolate writing!



I made this deliciousness for a birthday lunch with my mom: Arugula salad with Spinach and Avocado soup.



Later on, I gave her the macaroons, she loved them!

Here's where the comedy begins. So we give her the presents, and out comes the cake, lookin' mighty fine, we light the candle, sing Happy B-Day, and honestly, it was the most delicious cake I have EVER eaten, never mind gluten free, vegan, sugar free. Even my carnivorous sister and father loved it. We loved it so much, we sat in my living room after, sitting around the cake, just dwelling in its awesomeness.



(Can anyone tell me why my picture loaded this way? Or how to fix it?)

Along comes Marble.



She jumps up onto my lap to say hello, and my mom grabbed her to giver her a pet. I guess my mom grabber her so fast, she spooked her, and the rest happened like it was in slow motion.


She freaked out, jumped straight up into the air...

and landed...


spread eagled...

right on top of...

THE CAKE!!!

As she was in the air, all I was thinking was: "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"




Anyway, after her bath, Marble calmed down, and we cleaned it all up. I was laughing because I'm not sure if the cake could even be considered truly vegan anymore...But it was amazing, and I'll be going back the Kensington Bakery MANY TIMES!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Chocolate Covered Katie!

I've been following a great vegan cooking blog called Chocolate Covered Katie (there were no self indulgent key word searches involved in my discovery of this site I swear). She's got great recipes (especially oatmeal! yum) and is fun to read. Check it out. If you want to win some free chocolates, check out this post (But know you will be competing agaainst meeeee! it's on!)

http://chocolatecoveredkatie.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/so-what-about-this-chocolate-giveaway/

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Hello everybody! I've been busy for the last couple of days with work, and school, in particular, assignments. So I haven't tried out my own recipes. But I did try a couple. I made these:

http://domesticaffair.blogspot.com/2005/04/simply-sweet.html DELICIOUS Maple Flax Cookies by Jae Steele over at Domestic Goddess. They were a big hit with my mom because she can't eat sugar, and this recipe relies on maple syrup to sweeten the cookies. I was excited about them because I'm trying out the "Get Baked with Mat and Dave" challenge of trying to use more 100% Canadian maple syrup in my cooking.

I also tried out this recipe:
http://urbandrivel.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-here-and-therebut-mostly-there.html

Its chocolate, peanut butter banana bread. I was going to bring it to a friend's house (hey Mel!) but some weird and funky things were going on with my oven and it came out all crumbly (but delicious!) I'll try it again when my oven is not CRAZY.

I've also tried making my own juice...smoothie style. Because I don't have a juicer grrr. So they really turn out thick, but the flavour's been great and I'm not too picky.

I've tried out

carrot, apple, giner

and

spinach, apple, ginger, celery and tomato.

Good stuff, and full of nutrients!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Creamy Avocado Green Soup



The other day, my friend mentionned she made chilled avocado and cucumber soup which sounded amazing to me. So I thought I'd try my own hand at it. I made a Spinach and Avocado Soup! The temperature is supposed to go up to 15 degrees today, so it's time for some spring inspired recipes!

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado

2 cups of vegetable broth

1 cup of tightly packed baby spinach

1/4 of a package of silken tofu
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

about 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

ground pepper

cayenne pepper (I use a very small pinch)

Method

On the stove top, boil some water, and pop in the spinach for about a minute.

Blend together the chopped and peeled avocado, spinach, the lemon juice, the silken tofu, veggie broth, parsley and ground pepper until it has a creamy consistency.

Let chill, pour out into bowls, and sprinkle parsley and add cayenne pepper to taste.

Enjoy!


Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Maple Seed and Nut Bread



This post kinda points out how much I love bread.

Last night, I was lying on my bed at around midnight, looking at recipes. When I came across this one, I ran downstairs and started mixing the first step right away so it could rise for the night. I kinda felt pretty lame, but it just looked so amazing…covered in seeds of all kinds, and with MAPLE! So this morning, I woke up early and got to work again (never mind I have two essays due on Thursday…)

Here’s the link to the recipe
http://www.cookingbread.com/recipes/high_fiber_bread/maple_seeded_high_fiber_bread_recipe.html

But if you’re into bread, I suggest you check out their main page. Just make sure you have plenty of time to look, and I don’t suggest reading it while you’re hungry.

http://www.thekneadforbread.com/

I changed up the ingredients a little, I used spelt, and kamut flour instead. I also veganized it, which meant substituting maple syrup for egg in the coating (that sounded more delicious to me anyway). The recipe also calls for sunflower seeds, semolina flour, wheat germ and oats, but I don’t have those ingredients. So I used more flax seed meal, and added quinoa flour instead. Just as a reminder, I the recipes I mark as gluten free are as gluten free as I can make them, don't hold me responsible if I missed something and a bad reaction occurs.

Ingredients

The night before:

1 cup spelt flour
1 cup kamut flour
1 ¼ of a cup warm water
¼ of a tsp of instant yeast

The day of:

2/3 of a cup of 100% Canadian Maple Syrup
½ a cup of flax meal
¼ of a cup quinoa flour
2 tbsp poppy seeds
3 tbsp of flax seeds
1 tbsp of instant yeast
1 ¼ of a cup spelt flour
1 ¼ of a cup kamut flour
Handful of chopped almonds

Coating:

3 tbsp of flax seeds
3 tbsp of poppy seeds
Chopped almonds
2 tbsp of 100% Maple Syrup



Two happy little loaves in the oven

Method


The night before, combine flour, and instant yeast in a large bowl, and mix well.
Slowly add the war water (warm is important for the yeast).
I covered mine with cling wrap and left in a warm place, maybe a counter top…I put mine in my room near the vent

The next morning, uncover the dough, and add the maple syrup, flax meal, quinoa flour, flax seeds, poppy seeds, chopped almonds, and mix well.
Then add the instant yeast and spelt flour, and continue to mix. Slowly add the spelt flour, then the kamut.

Then I kneaded the dough for about 8 minutes.

Put the dough in a large bowl that has been coated with a bit of oil, and put in a slightly warmed oven (150 degrees) for about 45 minutes to an hour.

After the hour is up, take out the dough, and preheat the oven to 375. Cut the dough in half, shape into loaves.

On a baking sheet, sprinkle poppy seeds, flax seeds, chopped almonds, and currants. Coat the loaves in maple syrup and roll in the seed mixture.

Put in greased bread pans, and pop in the oven! The original recipe said to bake for 35-40 minutes, however, my oven is messed up and doesn't heat properly, and I used two different bread pans (one glass, one ceramic, so the loaf in the ceramic took longer). I ended up leaving them in the oven for about 45-55 minutes. Test by poking with a metal fork or skewer to see if it comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

If At First You Don't Succeed...



Spiced Apple Ginger Bread: Take Two

The other day I posted a recipe for Spiced Apple Ginger Bread, and I enjoyed it, but my dad took one bite, and unfortunately for him it was mostly ginger. So that left a bad impression of the entire loaf of bread, which is why I thought maybe I should alter the recipe a bit. It was pretty gingery. So I tried it out again, this time using 3 Tbs of grated ginger instead of six. I also decided to use maple syrup instead of brown sugar. There’s a great online (for me its online) radio program called “Let’s Get Baked with Mat and Dave”. It’s a vegan cooking and music radio program based in Halifax, and I decided to accept their challenge: use more of Canada’s Number 1 National Treasure: maple syrup! I agree with them, people use too much refined sugar. So join the movement---use maple syrup in your cooking! And check out their website to find tasty dishes and neat interviews with Canadian musicians: http://letsgetbaked.ckdu.ca/

I won’t repost the entire ingredient list, just substitute the brown sugar for an equal amount of maple syrup (100% Canadian), banana instead of apple sauce (and instead of egg) and 3 Tbs of ginger instead of 6.

Soup!


Chickpea and Spinach Soup
This soup comes from the FatFree Vegan, and it was called North African Chickpea and Kale Soup
I cut her recipe in half and made less, and also made a few alterations. I didn't have kale, or a cinnamon stick, so I used spinach and a pinch of ground cinnamon instead. That being said, the soup turned out delicious and hot, but not too spicy. I was pretty excited to use some of the spices listed, especially saffron. Such an amazing soup!

Ingredients

½ large onion
1 carrot sliced or diced
2 cloves of garlic pressed
¾ of a tsp of ground cumin
¼ of a tsp of paprika
1/8 of a tsp of cayenne pepper
1/8 of a tsp of allspice
pepper to taste
½ tsp of ginger
Pinch of saffron
1 bay leaf
1 pinch of cinnamon
1.5 cups of chickpeas
4 cups of vegetable broth
About 2 cups of baby spinach
Method
Chop your carrots and onions
Heat a pan with a drizzle of a tsp of olive oil in it
Saute the onions and carrots until they begin to brown, then add the garlic.
After a couple of minutes, add the spices (ginger, bay leaf, saffron, allspice, pepper, paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, cinnamon) and mix around in the pan
After a minute, add the chickpeas and stir so everything is coated.
Then, add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
Simmer for about 20 minutes, then add about 2 cups of spinach.
Cook until the spinach is wilted and mixed throughout the soup.
Enjoy!