West African pepper and chickpea stew

Method

1. Roughly chop the red peppers, onion and chilli. Peel the garlic and ginger. Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
2. Rinse the rice in a sieve, then tip it into a small lidded pan with 300 ml of cold water and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, cover, and cook on the lowest heat for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the lid on.
3. Put the red peppers, chopped tomatoes, 2 cloves of the garlic, the ginger and the chilli in a blender and blend until smooth.
4. Warm the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Cook the onion and the remaining garlic clove, chopped, with a pinch of salt for 7 minutes until soft.
5. Stir in the tomato purée, smoked paprika and curry powder for 1 minute, then pour in the blended sauce.
6. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce has reduced, turned deep red and the oil starts to separate at the edges.
7. Add the chickpeas and simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fluff the rice with a fork and serve the stew over it.

Tip Wait for the oil to separate at the edges of the sauce. That is how you know it has cooked down enough and the flavour has concentrated.

Photo made with AI.

From Nosha · nosha.app