Lunch Saturday 13 January - Chickpea Tagine & cous cous

Chickpea Tagine & cous cous
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, chopped (about 115g)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 fat tomatoes (about 300g), chopped
1 teaspoon golden unrefined sugar
1 carrots, chopped (about 150g)
handful fresh parsley
1/2 preserved lemon, chopped
1 tin chick peas
55g pitted green and black olives
8 dried apricots, quartered (about 50g)
250g raw pumpkin, cut into chunks
handful fresh coriander

Sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil. Add the spices, tomato, sugar, carrots and parsley. Add enough water to just barely cover the ingredients. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes.

Add the chick peas, preserved lemon, olives, apricots and pumpkin. Simmer until pumpkin is tender, about 15 minutes more.

Garnish with the fresh coriander and serve with cous cous.

Makes 2 servings

Nutrition Data per serving
Calories (kcal) 275.1
Carbohydrate (g) 35.9
Protein (g) 9.6
Fat (g) 11.3
Fibre (g) 8.2



Salted Preserved Lemons
Quarter lemons, but leave quarters attached at the base.

Mix together
- coarse sea salt
- lightly crushed coriander seeds
- lightly crushed fennel seeds
- lightly crushed black pepper corns
- stick cinnamon, broken into shards
- a few sprigs thyme
- a few bay leaves

Place a layer of the salt mix in a large clean jar. Pack in a couple of lemons, sprinkle with more salt mix. Keep alternating layers of lemons and salt until jar is full. Press lemons down well to extract the juice and compress them. Top up the jar with more lemon juice if required.

Turn the jar to agitate the mixture once a day while the mixture is aging. Age for 30 days before use. Will keep for about 2 years.

I saw the Mockney Jamie Oliver do these on his telly show a while back (repeated on UKTV Food) and made some. They are now a few months old and they are bloody gorgeous - they have produced a sort of "honey" in the pickling syrup. Must try some other recipes with them, too.