CONFIT TOMATO & CHICKPEA STEW

a stew soon to be in your weekly rotation

Welcome to The Late Plate, where I share with you the recipes I am cooking at home in my warehouse. I live communally with six other people, which means we each pay £25 a week and collectively that pays for all of our weekly food costs. One person cooks dinner each night of the week for everyone else, so that every night of the week there is a delicious dinner that will feed us all. The food we eat is largely vegetarian, seasonal, healthy and affordable, and I can’t wait to share some of those recipes with you here!

the stew served over cous cous with added chill oil and fresh coriander

Picture the scene, I had invited my dad, my sister and my cousin round for dinner weeks in advance, life had gotten busy, the day rolled around and I found myself staring down the barrel of a more than hectic day with no time to prepare the meal I had invited them to. I did the mental maths, and by my count I had four housemates and three guests coming for a dinner I didn’t have time to make. Right there and then, I realised if I spent half an hour throwing a fews things in a pot, I could have a more than delicious meal on the table by dinner time and still be able to knock out an afternoon of work. I shared a video about the whole thing on Instagram and hundreds of people asked for the recipe, which I later filmed and shared too. The prep takes less than 20 mins and then you just let her stew in her literal juices in the oven for anywhere between 2-5 hours. Prep this in the morning and you’ll be thanking yourself by dinner.

Confit Tomato and Chickpea Stew

The joy of this recipe is that it’s more of a suggestion than anything. It would work just as well with any tinned or jarred bean, you can use fresh or tinned tomatoes, you can mix up the spices to suit your palate, you can serve with a carb of your choice. This stew is more of a way of life, it’s the antidote to girl dinner / microwave meal / instant noodle solutions when you are short on time but hungry for a satisfying meal. It’s for those busy days when you want a good meal to look forward to, that’s healthy, delicious and not going to cost the earth. For me, this is the greatest proof that there isn’t always time for hours and hours of cooking, but there is always time for delicious food.

Serves 6-8

INGREDIENTS:
The stew:
- 700g jar chickpeas with their bean juice (or two tins of chickpeas)
- 500g fresh tomato (can be any kind, use tinned tomatoes when they are out of season)
- 2 white onions roughly chopped
- a thumb sized piece of ginger julienned
- 6 cloves of peeled garlic
- a vegetable stock cube
- 1tbsp each of cinnamon, cumin, coriander and paprika
- 2tbsp caster sugar
- 1tsp chilli flakes
- 2 tsp salt & pepper
- 200ml olive oil

Tahini dressing:
- 100g tahini
- juice of one lime
- 50 ml soy sauce
- enough olive oil to thin it out to the desired consistency

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 150c (alternatively you can do this in a slow cooker!)

2. Put all the stew ingredients in an oven proof pan with a tight fitting lid (or the slow cooker) the olive oil should just cover the rest of the ingredients, if it doesn’t, add a little more - this is what confits the chickpeas.

3. Give it a good stir and cook in the oven for at least two hours, but anywhere up to five, stir again before serving.

4. When you are ready to eat whisk together the tahini, soy and lime and then gradually add the oil. If the dressing splits add a drop of boiling water and whisk again, the should bring it back together.

5. Serve the stew over cous cous or rice, drizzle with the dressing and top with some fresh coriander - I like to add chilli oil too!