Cooking: Spiced chickpeas

Ever since dinner at Café Mint I've been wanting to re-create the dish of the evening; the spiced chickpeas. Today with friends coming over for lunch it was the perfect opportunity. I was anticipating failure as I haven't felt that I've cooked chickpeas very well before. However, I was rather pleased! They tasted excellent even if I do say so myself.... Tender, spicy, sweet goodness.

To go with the chickpeas I bbq'd some lamb and made a pearl barley and pumpkin salad. Maria inspired both John and myself to give this recipe a go. I adapted their ideas quite a bit to fit the ingredients I had in my cupboard.

As I wasn't predicting success with the chickpeas I didn't note down all the ingredients and quantities. It was a handful of this, and a little bit of that. Use the below as a guide and feel free to vary the quantities.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried chickpeas
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Small piece of ginger, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp chilli powder
Half a freshly grated nutmeg
Half a tin of chopped tomatoes
Two handfuls of dried dates, chopped
Small bunch of spinach
Half a lemon

Method:
1.Soak the dried chickpeas in water over night.

2. Simmer the chickpeas for 30mins then drain and set aside.

3. Fry the onion, garlic and ginger until soft. Then add the ground cumin, coriander, garam masala and chilli powder. Mix well and fry the spices for a further couple of minutes.

4. Add the chickpeas to the pan, along with the dates and half can of chopped tomatoes. Stir well and barely simmer on a low heat for 30mins to let the flavours develop. You don't want the mixture to dry out, but nor get too wet. Keep an eye on it and add a little bit of water from time to time.

5. When you are ready to serve and the spinach to the ban and let it wilt. As a finishing touch freshly squeeze over the juice of half the lemon.