Chickpea Yogurt Soup

I usually have lots of dried grains and beans on hand, and buy rice by the 20 pound bag at the Asian market, so in my mind I was ready to shelter in place.  But it turned out that I had severely depleted supplies of some items, including chick peas, and my grocery delivery order came up short as well.  So I ordered on line, and now I have four pounds of dried chickpeas and I am going to make something every week with them.  Last week it was just marinated chickpeas for my salad, but this week it is the Genius Food 52 recipe.  Simple, and mostly with ingredients you are likely to have on hand.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 pinch fine-grain sea salt, to taste
• 3 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 1/2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• ¹/₄ teaspoon saffron threads (2 modest pinches)
• 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 cup plain yogurt (Greek or regular)
• 1 dash sweet paprika
• 1 small bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

• In a medium-large pot over medium-high heat, combine the olive oil, onion, and a couple of big pinches of salt. Cook until the onions soften up a bit, a few minutes.
• Stir in the chickpeas, and then add the vegetable broth and garlic. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the saffron and egg yolks, then whisk in the yogurt. Slowly add a big ladleful, at least 1 cup, of the hot broth to the yogurt mixture, stirring constantly. Very slowly whisk this mixture back into the pot of soup.
• Return the pot to medium heat and cook, stirring continuously for another 5 minutes or so, until the broth thickens to the consistency of heavy cream, never quite allowing broth to simmer.
• Ladle into individual bowls and serve sprinkled with a touch of paprika and plenty of chopped cilantro.