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Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 2 400g tins chickpeas, drained
- 1 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 large red chilli, roughly chopped, seeds and all (remove the seeds if you don’t like spicy)
- 15g coriander leaves, roughly chopped
- 75ml olive oil
- 1½ tsp ground cumin
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 8 dates, pitted and roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 8 carrots (approx 500g) peeled and cut into batons
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt and black pepper
- 1-2 lemons, zest finely grated, to get 1½ tsp, and juiced, to get 2 tbsp
- 150g feta, roughly crumbled or cut into 1cm cubes
- 100g spinach
Photo courtesy of Michelle Rose @ mobilefoodie.co.uk
Method
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4.
Drain the chickpeas and set aside.
Put the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli in a food processor, and pulse a few times until very finely chopped but not pureed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. Add the coriander stalks, and pulse a couple of times more, just to mix through.
On a medium-high flame, heat two tablespoons of oil in a large, heavy-based cast-iron pot with a lid. Add the onion mixture and cook for about four minutes, stirring occasionally, then stir in the cumin, cinnamon, dates and tomato paste, and cook for a minute more, or until fragrant.
Add the drained chickpeas, carrots, bay leaves, 1.2 litres water and a good grind of sea salt black pepper.
Cover and bake for an hour and a half, or until the carrots and chickpeas are soft, and the sauce has turned thick and rich.
Put the chopped or crumbled feta in a small bowl with the caraway, lemon zest and leave to one side to marinade.
Remove the casserole from the oven and stir the spinach,place back in the oven to allow the spinach to wilt.
Add the feta mix and place back in the oven for another five minutes.
Remove from the oven and drizzle over a tablespoon of olive oil.
This recipe was inspired by Yottam Ottolenghi
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