Chickpea, Chorizo & Tomato Stew

Yesterday was something of a momentous day for me – so much so that I went to bed early and as a result this post is a little late – you see it was my daughters first day at school.

I think it went well, well enough for her to have been up since 6am dressed and ready for day two.  I’m writing this whilst she fills in time before it will actually be time to go.  I suspect I’ll need some exciting things planned for the weekend otherwise the constant: “when is it time to go back to school” may drive me slightly insane.  I have no doubt that all this wont last and she’ll be resenting school with the best of them soon enough so perhaps I should enjoy this…

This recipe though has absolutely nothing to do with either my daughter (although she does like it) or indeed school but it is both; what we had for dinner yesterday and a nice way to use some ripe tomatoes that, if you are in the southern hemisphere, you hopefully have sitting around at the moment.  Having said that the dish would work equally well with preserved tomatoes, or passata, or tins so could really be cooked anywhere, anytime.

 Chickpea, Chorizo & Tomato Stew (Serves 2 adults & 2 kids)

• 125g chickpeas or 500g cooked chickpeas
• 250g chorizo (if you have a really nice, strongly flavoured chorizo you may not need quite this quantity) chopped into bite sized pieces
• 10 medium sized tomatoes chopped into small dice (you can skin them if you like but I don’t think its necessary)
• 3 tblspn olive oil
• 1 onion – chopped into small dice
• 1 red capsicum – cut into small dice
• 3 big fat garlic cloves – finely chopped
• 1 red chilli – finely chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp paprika (I use standard paprika as I find the smoked one a bit too artificial tasting when used in tomato dishes)
• 1 cup chicken stock ( you may not need the full cup worth) or stock from cooking the chickpeas
• 1 small bunch parsley, leaves finely chopped and stalks reserved for cooking the chickpeas.
• a really nice extra virgin olive oil for finishing.
• Salt & Pepper

If you are using uncooked chickpeas, as I usually do, soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of water and with 1 tsp bicarb soda added.  Drain.  Place the chickpeas into a saucepan with plenty of water, some parsley stalks and a few bits of tomato (for some reason I find beans and peas cooked with a bit of tomato taste much nicer).   Bring to the boil and then simmer until cooked.  Drain reserving the cooking water to use as stock either in this recipe or at a later date.

If you have more aromatics on hand like celery, thyme, carrot etc by all means add them to the chickpea water, as they will add depth to stock you produce.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a wide based pan (either a saucepan or a high sided frying pan work well.)  and fry the chorizo until it starts to brown.  Remove the chorizo from the oil and set aside.  Add the onion to the hot oil and cook over a lowish heat for about 5 minutes.  Add the capsicum.  Cook until the capsicum & onion are soft.  Add garlic and chilli and cook for another few minutes.  Add the paprika & bay leaf then the  tomatoes.  Cook until the tomatoes collapse.  At this point add the chicken stock (if your tomatoes are very watery you will not need to add the full cup of stock).  Bring back to the boil.  Reduce a bit if you think it needs it.  Add the chickpeas & chorizo.  Season with salt & pepper. Cook for a further 5 -10 minutes.  Add the parsley.  Stir through, remove from heat.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.  Serve with chunky bread.

To see what others are cooking this week head over to the Gardener of Eden for Thursdays Kitchen Cupboard.