Italian Chickpea Soup, with Sweet Potatoes and Dijon Mustard

For the longest time, I was never a soup fan. Might have something do with mild Southern winters, or the abundance of chicken broth in many soups, or even mediocre canned soups that turned me off. Lately, though, I've been hungry for soup.

I found this recipe in a copy of Vegetarian Times I picked up before Thanksgiving. This is one of the all-time reader favorites, and I really agree. I think I'll be having some more of this for lunch today.

Start with the usual celery, onion, and broth, along with some dried spices, and cook with a can of chickpeas*, a diced sweet potato, and -- the kicker -- some Dijon mustard. After the vegetables have softened, mash everything together, leaving some chunks of sweet potato and chickpeas. I'm marking this as easy, too, because the ingredients are readily available and besides a little chopping, it comes together quickly.

I could not have imagined ahead of time how yummy this would be. Try it, you'll like it.

* I did use canned beans, but one of my forthcoming goals is to move away from those kinds of things.