This middle eastern inspired dish is a great heart warming dish. It is full of spice, slightly sweet and vegetarian. For our family it ticked all the boxes. We liked having this stew with home made flat breads and zingy yoghurt sauce.

This stew tastes the best when prepared a day in advance, I make the sauce and bread dough in advance too. This makes this an easy and festive meal to make when we have people over. Thanks to its sweetness, my son loves this dish too.

Regarding the spice mix, you could just use to table spoons of raz el hanout instead of this complicated mix. Alternatively you could just double the teaspoons of various spices and leave out the Raz el Hanout. Raz el Hanout is an Arabic spice mix which is great for making Middle Eastern stews, I like to think of it as the cousin of curry powder.

Chickpea stew (4 portions)

• Spice mix:
  • 1 tsp spicy smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp ground koriander
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 tsp cinamon
  • 1 tbsp raz el hanout
• 2 large onions, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
• 400 gr (tinned) chickpea’s
• 400 gr (tinned) diced tomatoes
• 10 dried apricots, roughly chopped
• Optional for serving: a handful of shopped fresh koriander

1. Fry your onions and garlics untill soft and light brown. Take your time for this step, it adds lots of flavor.
2. Add the spice mix. Stir and fry this for a few minutes.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients.
4. Let this mix come to a boil. Let it simmer on a low heat for an hour or more.
5. Stir your stew regulaly. If needed, add some water to prevent it from sticking.
6. Season to taste.

You can keep this spicy stew for up to for 4 days in an airtight container in your fridge. Warm it up in your microwave or in a pan while stirring on low heat.

I like to serve this stew with some flat bread, yoghurt garlic sauce and a salad of lettuce, tomatoe, onion, feta, nigella seeds, olive oil and lemon juice.