Shop

Gift

Learn

ABOUT

JOIN THE CLUB Account

+ FREE SHIPPING OVER £50

+ JOIN THE CLUB FOR JUST £15

Home
Blog
Hearty chickpea broth with whipped tahini.

Hearty chickpea broth with whipped tahini.

Ingredients

2 small onions
4 large garlic cloves, grated or minced
2 x 540g jars Bold Bean Queen chickpeas, including their liquid (approx. 800g drained chickpeas + 280g liquid, topped up with 300g water)
1–2 tsp salt (to taste)
Small bunch fresh bay leaves, optional
85g (100ml) Greek olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
50g parsley, picked
150g tahini
20g Greek olive oil
125g water
1 lemon / 30g lemon juice

A dish to welcome the new season and new year.

We’ve teamed up with chef Kali Jago for recipe, created specifically around our new season Greek EVOO from Corinthia. The soup is topped with a dollop of whipped tahini, a delicious addition that’s easily transferable to other dishes.

On a recent trip to Athens, I ate at Diporto, a no-frills, no-menu restaurant where you're seated and served a selection of dishes without ordering. Among them was this chickpea dish: a simple broth, melt-in-the-mouth jumbo chickpeas, lots of black pepper, and plenty of extra virgin olive oil. It was heavenly! When I got home, I had to recreate it—and I’m happy to say this version is pretty much spot on.

The latest Club oil from Corinthia is the perfect EVOO for this dish, while it’s delicate it adds depth and richness to the dish. Bringing everything together beautifully. Don’t be shy with it, a good EVOO really makes the humble pulse sing.

Finding these jumbo chickpeas in the UK can be difficult, but luckily Bold Bean has stepped in with their Queen chickpeas and made them a thing! They’re perfect for this recipe.

Here's the method:

Serves 4

Peel the onions and cut them into eighths.
Mince or grate the garlic.
Place both in a medium-large pan with a lid.
Add the chickpeas along with their liquid (if using Bold Bean, otherwise strain and add more water), 400g of water, 1 tsp salt, and bay leaves (if using).
Cover with the lid, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Stir in the olive oil and cook for about 40 minutes, or until the onions are soft and mellow.
Add the lemon juice and black pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
Stir in the picked parsley and serve with fresh bread to mop it all up.
Take this dish to another level with the optional (but recommended!) whipped tahini topping.
Blend all the ingredients in a blender until fluffy and smooth. Keep any extra in the fridge—it’s great on everything!
Enjoy this comforting dish, and don’t forget to drizzle with extra olive oil for that perfect finish.

Top tip to keep you fighting fit

For an extra dose of goodness this hearty bowl works deliciously with the array of brassicas in season this month. Think kale, savoy cabbage or any other greens that are lurking in the fridge!

Join the Olive Oil Club

We travel the world to seek out remarkable independent producers, sourcing some of the best olive oils out there. For a revolving selection of exclusive, small batch EVOOs...

SHOP NOW

You may also like...

Aubergine, tomato, and kalamata olives.

Silky aubergine, tomato, and red wine vinegar are balanced by the natural sweetness of dates and slow-cooked red onion and made to shine with plenty of September’s Club drop from Córdoba. This vibrant bowl from Kali Jago is the perfect dish to help your transition into autumn. Sweet, succulent tomato brings a taste of summer and this hearty Mediterranean dish will sit happily in the fridge for a few days, so it’s an ideal batch cook to set you up for the week. Plus, you can bulk it out with ...

Cherry pavlova with olive oil

Tangy yoghurt cream, crunchy pistachios, crisp meringue, and juicy cherries—these single-serve pavlovas are a sweet sensation for eyes and taste buds alike. Take your pavlova up a notch with the addition of extra virgin olive oil. An extra drizzle of our Greek olive oil or August’s Portuguese Club EVOO is the ideal pairing to cut through the sweetness and adds a shine of gold to this dessert. Purple fruits are also packed with polyphenols, adding even more goodness. If you don’t have fresh ...

Ceramics for the Olive Oil Club

From Porto to pride of place in the kitchen, one of your most requested products—the Citizens of Soil ceramic—is here. Within months of us launching in 2021, people kept telling us how they’d love to have our oil in a nice ceramic. At events and tastings, customers would ask about the best way to store their oil and show us different vessels they had used to refill our signature pouches. When you make a normal glass olive oil bottle as pretty as ours—it’s natural that people want to see what...

FAQs about olive oil brands and quality

They certainly can be! But it’s always important to consider why they’re expensive. If the higher price reflects early harvest olives, small-batch production, regenerative farming, and fair wages for farmers, then yes – you're likely getting a high-quality product that’s better for your health, the environment, and the industry. But sometimes, the price tag just reflects good branding and fancy packaging. Always look for real indicators of quality like harvest date, origin transparency, proper packaging, and clear production practices to know if it’s truly worth the splurge.
The best way to tell if you have a bottle of real extra virgin olive oil—and not just labeled that way—is to look for transparency and pay close attention to the details. Quality EVOO will list a harvest date (not just an expiration date), come in a dark glass or tin container, and specify the origin. Avoid vague blends and flashy marketing claims without substance. And most importantly, taste it: legitimate extra virgin olive oil should be fruity, bitter and peppery—not flat or greasy. Your palate is often the best judge
One of the biggest culprits is the term ‘first cold pressed’, which might sound impressive but doesn't define the modern extra virgin olive oil making process or the product's quality. Also look for the harvest date. If you only see an expiration or “best before”, it's more likely the olive oil quality isn't as good. Also pay attention to vague origins like ‘EU blend’. While this might sound romantic, it's a strong indicator that olive oil quality is not top notch. Long story short: true quality comes from transparency, not trendy marketing, so always look beyond branding.