Chickpea and Herb Stew Recipe

Serves:

Prep time:

10 minutes

Cook time:

1 hour 15 minutes

Dairy free | vegetarian | Nut free | soy free

Ingredients

100ml olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
12 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 bulb of garlic, cloves peeled and thinly sliced
50g coriander, roughly chopped
100g dill, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves (optional)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
100g pomegranate seeds
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained (or 240g cooked chickpeas)
1 x 400g tin Puy/Beluga lentils, drained (or 250g cooked Puy/Beluga lentils)
400ml vegetable stock
1 teaspoon honey
Salt, to taste
Teaspoon cracked black pepper
Juice of lemon
Flatbreads, to serve

Method

1. Place a large, deep frying pan that has a lid over a medium heat. Add the oil and the onion and cook for about 15 minutes until caramelised.

2. Reduce the heat to medium and add the spring onions, garlic, coriander and dill (reserving a little dill for garnish). Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

3. Next, add the fenugreek leaves, if using, spices and pomegranate seeds (reserving a few tablespoons of the pomegranate seeds for garnish). Stir, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

4. Finally, add the chickpeas, lentils, stock, honey, salt, pepper and lemon juice, and gently cook for 30 minutes until the liquid has mostly evaporated.

5. Garnish with the reserved pomegranate seeds and dill and serve with flatbreads.

This is an unusual, deliciously intriguing dish, loosely based on the herbed stews of Iran.

Extracted from LEON Happy One Pot Vegetarian by Rebecca Seal and Chantel Symons, which is published by Conran Octopus, 17.99, www.octopusbooks.co.uk

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