Description
A Turkish spiced chickpea stew is deeply satisfying and extremely easy to make. The stew is delicately spiced and enlivened with tender pieces of meat but the soft and starchy chickpeas are the real stars of the show!
Ingredients
Scale
- 250 g dry chickpeas (1 ¼ cups)
- 1 large onion
- 285 g leg of lamb (10 oz), or use your preferred beef cuts
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp sweet red pepper paste (tatlı biber salçası), or use tomato paste
- 2 tsp fine sea salt, divided
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ½ tsp acı toz biber, or use any red chili powder you have
Instructions
- Soak and cook the chickpeas. Place the chickpeas in a large bowl and cover completely with cold water. Allow to soak for about 12h or overnight. Drain in a colander and rinse the chickpeas under cold running water. Add the chickpeas to a cooking pot and cover with 2.5L (11 cups) of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to low heat, cover with a lid and cook at a simmer for 2h. Top with more water during cooking if it gets too dry (the chickpeas need to be covered with water at all times). Taste to make sure they are tender enough for you. If not, cook the chickpeas for a little longer (15 to 30 min) but keep in mind that they’ll cook a bit more in the stew. Drain in a colander and put aside.
- Brown the meat. Peel the onion and finely chop it. Cut the lamb into small cubes. Heat the oil in a deep non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion along with 1 tsp of salt and cook, stirring from time to time, for 7 min. The onion should have softened and turned translucent by then. Tip in the cubed lamb (or beef), and cook stirring often until the lamb starts to color a little and is no longer pink, about 5 min.
- Cook the spiced chickpea stew. Add the red pepper (or tomato) paste and spread it all over the lamb and onion using the back of a wooden spoon. Cook for 2 min. Stir in 1 tsp of salt, the rest of the spices and the cooked chickpeas. Pour in 475ml (2 cups) of water and increase the heat to quickly bring the stew to a boil. Then lower the heat and simmer gently uncovered for 20 min. Taste and add a bit more salt or red chili powder if desired.
Notes
You can keep any leftover stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 574
Keywords: stewed chickpeas, boiled chickpeas, typical turkish food