Moroccan Chickpeas

You do have to be slightly organized and soak the chickpeas overnight, but besides that, this is a very quick prep recipe and you can put it in the oven and let it cook while you go see the donkeys run at Il Palio dei Somari.

This recipe could quite easily be cooked in a slow cooker instead of in the oven, following the same steps, but substituting a slow cooker for the oven.

Prep time: 10 minutes; Cook time: 10 minutes & 6 hours; Serves: 6-8

What you need:

• 2 1/2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
• 2 onions, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 720 jar tomato passata (or 1 796 can crushed tomatoes)
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 tbsp Ras el Hanout
• 1/2 tsp Aleppo peppers (or 1 tbsp paprika)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 250 g spinach, de-stemmed and torn
• salt, pepper to taste

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 275
• Put ceramic pot on medium high, add olive oil

• Sautee onion and garlic until soft

• Add Ras el Hanout and Aleppo pepper, stir for 1 minute

• Add wine, deglaze pot

• Add chickpeas, stir to coat

• Add tomato passata and vegetable stock, stir
• Bring to a boil
• Place in oven
• Cook for 6 hours
• (if you find it is drier than you like, add water and stir)

• Add torn spinach, stir cook for 10 – 20 minutes, until wilted (while you make rice)

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Serve over rice

Want to add some meat?

I’ve also made a meat version of this and added boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into chunks that have been rubbed with a mix of olive oil, garlic and Ras el Hanout spice, then placed in the pot after the onion stage to seal (i.e. turn white on the outside, so the chicken parts are not going in raw) prior to adding the chickpeas etc. Follow the rest of the steps, as above.