The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen’s One-pot Chickpeas with Carrots, Dates and Marinated Feta
This warming one-pot dish features spiced chickpeas and carrots baked into a rich sauce. Finish with a quick lemon and parsley-marinated feta to add a touch of creamy freshness.
From the book
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things
Flexibility, flavour, and future-proofing your cooking
From simple midweek dinners to complex showstopper meals
Enjoy a little something extra to transform your next meal
Introduction
Our last OTK book, Shelf Love, dedicated a whole chapter to one-pot cooking, but it doesn’t stop there: we are constantly on the lookout for throw-it-in-a-pot meals. The ingredients all get to hang out together and be merry, optimising their tasty potential while also saving on the washing-up. Soaking the chickpeas is necessary to achieve the right degree of cooking, so be sure to plan ahead. Swap out the feta for a non-dairy alternative to give you a completely vegan meal.
Ingredients
| 300g | dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water with 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda |
| 1 | onion, peeled and roughly chopped (150g) |
| 6 | garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped |
| 25g | fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped |
| 1 | large green chilli, roughly chopped, seeds and all (15g) |
| 15g | fresh coriander, roughly chopped |
| 2 tbsp | olive oil |
| 1½ tsp | ground cumin |
| 1 ½ tsp | ground cinnamon |
| 2 | Medjool dates (45g) skinned, pitted and roughly chopped (40g) |
| 1 tbsp | tomato paste |
| 4 (500g) | carrots, peeled and cute at an angle into 2-3 large chunks (450g) |
| 2 | fresh bay leaves |
| ¼ tsp | bicarbonate of soda |
| 2 tbsp | lemon juice |
| 5g | parsley, roughly chopped |
| salt and black pepper | |
| For the marinated feta: | |
|---|---|
| 150g | Greek feta, roughly crumbled |
| 1 tsp | caraway seeds, toasted and roughly crushed with a pestle and mortar |
| 1½ tsp | finely grated lemon zest |
| 5g | parsley, roughly chopped |
| 75ml | olive oil |
Essential kit
You will need: a food processor.
Method
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 2 hours 25 minutes
Soaking time: 12 to 24 hours
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan. Drain the chickpeas from their liquid and set aside.
Put the onion, garlic, ginger and green chilli into a food processor and pulse a few times until very finely chopped but not puréed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the coriander and pulse a couple of times more, to mix through.
Heat the oil in a large, ovenproof cast-iron pan, for which you have a lid, on a medium-high heat. Add the onion mixture and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the cumin, cinnamon, dates and tomato paste and cook for a minute more, or until fragrant. Add the drained chickpeas, carrots, bay leaves, ¼ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, 1¾ teaspoons of salt, 1.2 litres of water and a good grind of black pepper and bring to the boil, skimming the scum from the surface as needed. Cover with the lid and bake in the oven for 2 hours, or until the chickpeas are completely softened and the sauce has become thick and rich. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley and leave to cool for about 10 minutes.
While the chickpeas are cooking, make the marinated feta by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl and setting aside for the flavours to infuse.
Divide the chickpea mixture between 4–6 bowls and top each with some of the feta, serving any extra alongside.
Marinated feta:
– Make the feta sans parsley, seal it off with more oil, and keep it in a sterilised jar in the fridge for up to a week.
– Spoon it over salads or soups, or serve with the sweet ’n’ sour peppers (p. 118 of Extra Good Things).
