We have one veggie in our house so we often cook ‘split dishes’ – they start out the same and then get split in two at some point in the cooking process when meat is added to one pot and not the other. This is a bit different because it starts out with two pots but you cook both dishes simultaneously.
Serves 4. You will need:
- 200g cous cous
- 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
- 2 x teaspoons harissa paste – more if you like it hot
- 2 x large teaspoons of garam masala ground spice mix
- 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
- 1 very large or 2 medium onions
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 3 chicken breasts
- 2 handfuls of chopped dried apricots
Chop the onion and fry in a little olive oil with the garam masala spice in two separate pans. The spices should cook a bit and flavour the oil. After the onion has cooked a bit add half the chopped garlic to each pan. Add a teaspoon of harissa paste to each pan and give a good stir.
Cut the chicken breasts into strips and add to one pan, stirring so they get coated with the spices and cook all over. Add one third of the drained, rinsed chickpeas to the chicken, and then put the rest (two thirds) in the veggie pot.
When the chicken strips look cooked, add a handful of apricots and a tin of tomatoes to each pan, season with salt & pepper, top up with a little water if needed, put lids on and simmer for half an hour or so. Make the cous cous up by following the instructions on the packet – I just poured on boiling water to slightly more than cover the cous cous in a bowl, left it for 10 minutes and fluffed it up with a fork.
Give everyone two large spoons of cous cous and put the stew on top – serve with a dollop of yoghurt if it’s extra spicy, or and / or some chopped coriander leaves.
It was delicious. The veggie one ended up much spicier than the meat one for some reason – I must have put more harissa in it. I’m having the leftovers with Turkish flatbread for my lunch tomorrow. Can’t wait.