Once upon a time, Chris and Steph packed up most of their belongings in a storage unit at home and took off on a plane for the remote hills of Greece. For the next two months, they lived in Chris’ family’s ancestral village, falling in love with the white-haired relatives who still lived there, learning to speak very little Greek, and eating gobs of Greek food.
One dish Steph’s thea’s (aunts) taught her to cook was a deliciously ethnic and frugal soup called Rivithia (Ray-VEE-th-ya). When Chris and Steph returned home, Rivithia showed up on their table – winter, summer, fall, anytime – almost as regularly as any other American dish, served with crackers and lots of fond memories of their adventures in the hill village.
True story.
Because Chris and I lived so frugally during our first year of marriage (including living in a converted shed), and because Chris conveniently has family living in a remote hill village of Greece, we really were able skip out for this phenomenal two month cultural-immersion.
While falling in love with other aspects of Greece, we of course ran into some fantastically delicious foods. Our family generously taught me (or tried to teach me, despite the language barrier) some of their staple meals, insisting I cook Greek food when we came back home. So I do. And we love it.
Since we talked about frugal sources of protein in our last Whole Foods Cheap post, I thought this brothy, beany soup would be appropriate. Even in these hot summer months, Chris and I still enjoy it.
This soup costs about $1 to make enough for both of us for one meal – including going back for seconds. It’s hard to get much cheaper than that, right?
Rivithia (Chickpea Soup)
Serves 2
Measurements are approximate – you can adjust them to your taste
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/2 C. Dry chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans) (You can also used canned chickpeas, but they are more expensive. Stick to dry if you want to keep the price low)
- 1 T. Olive oil
- 1/3 C. Diced onion
- 24 oz. Can of tomato juice
- 2 C. Chicken broth* (I use and recommend homemade broth)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Oregano
DIRECTIONS
- Soak and cook chickpeas according to your desired method (go here for one method)
- In a large saucepan, sauté diced onion in olive oil until soft
- Add chickpeas, tomato juice and chicken broth to the large saucepan
- Cook until thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally
- Add salt, pepper and oregano to taste, stir
- Serve in bowls with crackers or toast (or fresh lemon juice, to be even more authentic)
*The original recipe used only tomato juice. It tastes great that way too, but I prefer the kick of nutrition and substance from the broth.
That’s it! Easy, huh? If you want the dish on more frugal meals today, head over to What’s on Your Plate? at Good Cheap Eats.
Do you have any favorite ethnic dishes that you serve regularly? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
Enjoy!
Steph
6 comments
4 pings
JessieLeigh
07/14/2010 at 8:48 AM (UTC -6)
I adore the story behind this recipe- that makes it so special! This sounds delicious to me! My darling hubby will not eat anything resembling a bean (*sigh*), but I have three little ones who would definitely try it with me. Thanks for sharing!
Steph
07/14/2010 at 12:24 PM (UTC -6)
Glad you liked it! Aren’t little kids fun to eat with? I’m looking forward to trying new meals with Ray after he grows beyond sweet potato puree….
FishMama
07/18/2010 at 11:43 AM (UTC -6)
What a great plate! Love chick peas. After living in France for ten months, I couldn’t remember the English word. I kept saying pois chiche to my mom. LOL
Steph
07/21/2010 at 12:02 PM (UTC -6)
Haha, I used to do the same thing with other words after coming back from West Africa. At least it shows we were immersed in French, n’es pas? (Yikes, I’m rusty.)
tuxgirl
04/25/2011 at 10:52 PM (UTC -6)
Is it possible to use tomato sauce or tomato paste in some way instead of the tomato juice? I don’t generally keep tomato juice in my pantry, but I’m interested in trying this recipe (and I have everything else). This seems like it would be one of the types of recipes that I could easily just pull out of the pantry if I can figure out how to correctly substitute for the tomato juice…
Steph
04/26/2011 at 8:03 AM (UTC -6)
tuxgirl – Yes, actually! One of my friends who tried this recipe used tomato sauce and simply thinnned it with water. I haven’t tried it yet, but she really liked the how the soup came out.
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