Chickpea And Spinach With Fresh Figs And Black Olives Tajine.

Total Time: 2 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 500 g chickpeas
• 800 g spinach
• 10 pitted black olives
• 8 figs, quartered
• 4 green chilies
• 2 oranges, zest of
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 2 pints vegetable stock
• 8 tablespoons olive oil, 6tbs to cook and 2tbs to dress
• 1 bunch of chopped fresh coriander
• 2 tablespoons whole dried coriander
• 1 tablespoon whole dried cumin seed
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorn
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• 2 tablespoons coriander powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin powder
• 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 tablespoon bay leaf powder
• salt, to tasty

Recipe

• 1 heat your 6 tbls of olive oil in a pan and fry your onions till see through (not golden). add your garlic now cook till golden.
• 2 add your olives and gently cook till they soften slightly (don't let your onion and garlic burn).
• 3 lower the heat and add your whole spice let them heat through for a min or two (you should smell a nutty scent).remove from heat.
• 4 add the powder spice to the warm pan and stir put back on a low heat and keep moving the mix around for no more than a min (don't let it burn) it may smell muddy--that's the cinnamon and chile (they don't like each other but taste great together) but that means it's ready.
• 5 mix in your tinned drained spinach,.
• 6 add your veg stock to the mixture and stir in, bring too simmer point and remove from heat.
• 7 put your chickpeas (rinsed and drained) into your tajine or casserole and stir in the mixture. make sure you cover with a lid and place in a cold oven.
• 8 cook for one and a half hours on 200°c.
• 9 while that's simmering away place together the figs, coriander, chilie, and 2 tbps of olive oil.and mix gently together, set aside to let the flavours meld.
• 10 after an hour and a half remove from the oven and pour the fig mix over the spinach and chickpeas, recover and cook for a further 30 minutes--don't stir.
• 11 remove from the oven and now gently turn it all together and salt to taste.
• 12 sprinkle the orange zest over and take to the table.