Moroccan Chickpeas

This is one of my favourites recipes and, like the minestrone; I learned it from my Mum.




Ingredients:

• 1 tbl of olive oil
• ½ an onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 small fresh red chilli, diced
• 2 teaspoons of harissa spice
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp hot chilli
• 6-8 button mushrooms, diced
• 1 quarter of a preserved lemon, chopped finely
• 1 tin of chickpeas (or equivalent of dried beans soaked overnight), rinsed thoroughly in boiling water (I also take off some of the skins so that they are softer, but this is probably unnecessary)
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 8 baby tomatoes, quartered
• Several handfuls of snowpeas, chopped into thirds
• Lemon and/or lime juice to taste
• Couscous or basmati rice to serve

Place onion in pre-heated pan with olive oil on medium-low. Stir over heat until translucent (5-10 minutes). Add garlic and chilli to pan and stir together. Add spices, ensuring that they remain moist. Add the mushrooms, stirring through the spices so that the mushrooms get coated in spices and a little oil. Raise the heat slightly and add some of the tomatoes and the preserved lemon to avoid the mixture becoming dry, stir for around 5 minutes. Add chickpeas and stir into the mixture, stir for around 5 minutes. Add the rest of the diced tomatoes and a little water to create a sauce. Finally add the baby tomatoes, snowpeas and lemon/lime juice.

This should be served on couscous, but I am avoiding wheat at the moment; so we used basmati rice instead.