Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for rose harissa chickpea stew with burnt chard

 It’s handy to have a star ingredient such as rose harissa to hand to liven up even the most basic staples: see how it sparkles in this seemingly unassuming chickpea stew

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/feb/08/meera-sodha-vegan-recipe-rose-harissa-chickpea-stew-burnt-chard?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard&fbclid=IwAR1mZw0qpVc6xT55giOPoto_gqK9KV8wXc1_F0uM7pB6nWoS-I5DBanCYHc

 Meera Sodha’s rose harissa chickpea stew with burnt chard. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay.

Rose harissa is the equivalent of a friend who always brings the party, no matter the situation. A friend, in all honesty, to whom I hadn’t paid much attention until I spotted a recipe (of which this is a bit of a wild adaptation) in Elly Curshen’s latest book, Green.

In it, the sweet smoke and spiciness of rose harissa gets store-cupboard staples such as chickpeas, tinned tomatoes and onions dancing to a great rhythm with very little fuss, and lots of wonderful flavour.

Rose harissa chickpea stew with burnt chard

Prep 15 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 4

1 tsp cumin seeds
Rapeseed oil
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 red peppers, stems, pith and seeds removed, flesh finely chopped
3 fat garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1½ tbsp tomato puree
2½ tbsp rose harissa – I like Belazu’s (if you’re on a gluten-free diet, check the label, because not all brands are GF)
Fine sea salt
1½ tsp ground sweet paprika
1 x 400g tin cherry tomatoes
2 x 400g tin chickpeas, not drained
200g rainbow chard, stems finely sliced, leaves roughly chopped, kept separate
½ tbsp lemon juice

To serve
Flatbread
Non-dairy yoghurt (optional)

Coarsely bash the cumin in a mortar and set to one side. Put three tablespoons of oil in a large casserole pot on a medium heat and, once hot, add the onions and peppers. Fry, stirring from time to time, for 20 minutes, until soft. Stir in the garlic, tomato puree, harissa, a teaspoon of salt, the paprika and bashed cumin seeds, cook for five minutes more, then add the tomatoes and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add the chickpeas and the liquid from their tin, turn down the heat to a simmer and leave to bubble away for about 10 minutes, by which time the chickpeas should be nice and soft and the stew rich and flavourful; if not, keep cooking for another five or so minutes.

To cook the chard, heat a tablespoon of oil in a wide frying pan over a high heat and, when the oil is shimmering, add the chard stems and fry, stirring once, for two minutes, until charred all over. Add the leaves, leave them to blister for two minutes, then turn and leave for another two minutes. Take off the heat, add the lemon juice and salt to taste, and toss.

To serve, heat up the flatbread. Ladle the stew into shallow bowls, fold the hot flatbread into quarters and put to one side. Put a little pile of chard on top of the chickpeas and add a dollop of non-dairy yoghurt, if you like.