Harissa Chickpeas with Tomatoes & Greens

Ingredients

• 2 x 400g tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 250ml hot vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• ½ lemon, juiced
• Warm pitta bread, to serve
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 200g kale, thick stalks removed, roughly chopped
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 onions, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 6 tbsp natural yoghurt
• 2 tbsp rose harissa
• Fresh mint, to serve

Method

1. Warm the olive oil in a heavy casserole over medium-low heat. Add the onion with a generous pinch of salt and cook for 12 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and catching gold at the edges. Salt early — it pulls moisture out and gets the onions sweet rather than scorched.
2. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds, just until fragrant — no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole stew bitter, so watch it like a hawk and move on the moment it smells nutty.
3. Stir in the harissa, cumin and ground coriander. Bloom the spices in the oil for a full minute until fragrant and the harissa has darkened a shade. Raw ground spices taste dusty; bloomed ones taste of themselves.
4. Tip in the chopped tomatoes with the caster sugar and a splash of the vegetable stock. Simmer for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally — the stock breaks the tomatoes down so they taste of fruit, not tin, and the sugar takes the metallic edge off.
5. Add the chickpeas and the rest of the hot stock. Simmer gently for 15 minutes until the sauce thickens around the chickpeas and they've drunk in the smoke and heat. The surface should look glossy, not watery.
6. Stir the kale in a handful at a time, letting each wilt before the next goes in. Cook for 5 minutes until the leaves are tender but still vivid green — overcooked kale goes khaki and sulphurous.
7. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice. Taste, season with salt and pepper, then taste again. Adjust now — at the end, not at the table. It should land smoky, tangy, and sturdy enough to hold a spoon up.
8. Spoon into bowls, finish each with a slow drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, and serve with warm flatbreads torn at the side or a mound of couscous alongside.