Ottolenghi’s vegan confit tandoori chickpeas

This scrumptious chickpea dish has had its fair share of Insta fame for a multitude of reasons, one of the first being that its simplicity makes it really quite attractive: just throw everything into a pan and pop it into the oven, leaving it to its own devices (and you to yours). A second reasoon is that slow-cooking the chickpeas in oil without added liquid makes them super-soft, allowing all the aromatics to break down into the oil. Lastly, this dish can easily be made ahead and served later. it only improves with time. Serve with rice.

Ingredients

• 2 tins of chickpeas (800g), drained (480g)
• 11 garlic cloves, peeled, 10 whole & 1 crushed
• 30g fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
• 400g datterini or regular cherry tomatoes
• 3 red chillies, slit  down their length
• 1 tbs tomato paste
• 2 tsp cumin seeds roughly crushed
• 2 tsp coriander seeds,  roughly crushed
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• 2 tsp red ashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 200ml olive oil
• 180g non-dairy Greek-style yoghurt
• 15g mint leaves
• 30g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• 2–3 limes: juiced to get 1 tbs and the rest cut into wedges to serve
• salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C fan.

2. Put the chickpeas, whole garlic cloves, ginger, tomatoes, chillies, tomato paste, spices, sugar, oil and 1 teaspoon of salt into a large sauté pan, for which you have a lid, and mix everything together to combine. Cover with the lid, transfer to the oven and cook for 75 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the aromatics have softened and the tomatoes have broken down nicely.

3. Meanwhile, put the non-dairy yoghurt, mint, fresh coriander, lime juice, crushed garlic and  ¼ teaspoon of salt in a food processor and blitz until the herbs are finely chopped.

4. Serve the chickpeas directly from the pan, with the yoghurt and lime wedges.

Extracted from Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love by Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi. (Ebury Press, £25)