This chilled chickpea soup is one of my favorite easy, healthy, no-cook summer meals. It tastes like a bowl of mild, ultra-creamy hummus piled high with all the toppings.

My love of cold soups knows no bounds. For other delicious versions, check out:

Tomato Watermelon Gazpacho

Cucumber Buttermilk Soup

Spinach and Avocado Soup with Salsa Verde

Chilled Cauliflower Soup with Truffle Oil

It’s also no secret that I’m a huge fan of hummus. See:

Hummus 10 Ways

Dill Pickle Hummus

Honeycrisp Apple Hummus

So it should come as no surprise that this cold chickpea soup rocketed right to the top of my “must make” list as soon as I laid eyes on it in the New York Times. I’m happy to report that with a few tweaks, it was even better than I expected. We had it for dinner twice last week with a green salad and some good bread on the side. So delicious, so simple.

Have you ever peeled chickpeas? It’s one of those cooking steps that has always seemed needlessly fussy to me. (But maybe that’s just because I have small children and am generally burned out on peeling things? Owen must have the outer layer removed from any and all foods he consumes.) But seriously, would peeling them really make that much of a difference? And who has the time?

Well, evidently I have the time, plenty of it, when June gets up at 5:30am. It was kind of meditative, actually. Peeling chickpeas in the early morning, sipping my coffee, and listening to NPR while this little peanut bounced away.

It only took about 15 minutes to get through two cans, and I have to say, it was so worth the extra effort. My soup came out incredibly luxurious and silky smooth. I’m officially converted. I will never willingly eat another chickpea skin again. For even more creaminess and added body, I made my soup with plain, unsweetened almond milk (though you could definitely use water if you don’t have any on hand). Almond milk is a great source of calcium, and since I’m still nursing, I try to incorporate it into my diet wherever I can. Usually it’s in the form of a big glass at night with a side of cookies, because #balance.

Let’s talk about the topping! It’s seriously so delicious, you could serve it on its own as a salsa for pita chips. Chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, red onion, fresh herbs, and (totally optional) pickled hot peppers. It’s all the flavors of a Greek salad floating in the middle of your soup. Trust me, this is a very good thing. I also added big crumbles of feta cheese, but you can leave that out to make it vegan.

You can definitely make both the soup and the topping ahead and store them in the fridge. The soup tends to thicken up a bit when chilled, so just thin it out with a little more almond milk or water. Even though this soup is light and healthy, it tastes really rich and so a little goes a long way. I like to serve it in shallow bowls, passing any extra topping separately.

Chilled Chickpea Soup

This chilled chickpea soup is everything you love about hummus in soup form. It's gluten-free and easy to make vegan (just leave out the feta). Plus it's packed with protein and calcium!

Servings 4

Ingredients

Soup:

2 (14-ounce) cans chickpeas rinsed and drained
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2-2 1/2 cups plain, unsweetened almond milk or water
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Topping:

1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup chopped cucumbers
1/4 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup minced red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons minced pickled hot peppers optional
1 cup feta cheese optional, omit for vegan version

Instructions

For the soup:

Peel the chickpeas by pressing them gently between your fingers. The skins should slide right off.
In a blender, combine the chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, garlic, and cumin. Add 2 cups of almond milk (or water) and blend until smooth. If the soup is still to thick for your liking, add the remaining 1/2 cup almond milk. Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper. Transfer the soup to the refrigerator and chill.

For the topping:

Combine the tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, onion, parsley, and hot peppers and feta cheese (if using) in a small bowl.

To serve:

If the soup thickens a lot in the fridge, thin it with a little water. Ladle it into shallow bowls and spoon a a scoop of the topping into the middle of each bowl. Pass remaining topping on the side.