Vegan MoFo Day 9: Tunisian Chickpeas

Today is slow cooker day again and I decided to make a dish I haven't made for a while - Tunisian chickpeas. Served with some lemony couscous and steamed veg this makes a really quick and tasty meal at the end of a long day. I used a tin of chickpeas for extra speed, although I think the flavour is better using chickpeas cooked from scratch. I adapted this recipe from Vegetarian Recipes for your Slo-Cooker by Annette Yates, which now seems to have been reprinted as Slow Cooking for Vegetarians.

Tunisian Chickpeas
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, julienned (I used a potato peeler to cut strips from the carrots)      
2.5 cm/1 inch fresh ginger, finely grated
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tin of chickpeas or 225 g/8 oz dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and boiled for 15 minutes
600 ml/1 pt/2.5 cups vegetable stock 
1 cinnamon stick
1 pinch of saffron
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp harissa paste
5-6 dried apricots, sliced
finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley or coriander (cilantro)  to garnish


In a medium sized saucepan, saute the onion and carrot in 1 Tbsp vegetable stock or olive oil for a couple of minutes. Add garlic and grated ginger and cook for 2 more minutes. Add stock, chickpeas, cinnamon stick, saffron, tomato paste, and harissa paste. Bring to the boil and transfer to the slow cooker. Cook for 4-5 hours. Add the apricots and cook for a further 30 minutes. Serve garnished with chopped flat leaf parsley or coriander leaves.