Quick chickpea braise with kale & harissa

This is a meal in a pan, a pan full of all the things I want to eat on a cold weeknight, and there is little more comforting than that. Most greens would work here in place of the kale. Jarred chickpeas are my choice – always. If you don’t have preserved lemons, the zest of an unwaxed lemon will do fine.

SERVES 4
olive oil
1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
2 big handfuls of kale (about 200g), leaves roughly chopped, stems shredded
1 heaped teaspoon ground turmeric
1 preserved lemon
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 x 400g tins chickpeas or a 660g jar
a bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

TO SERVE
4 tablespoons plain yoghurt of your choice
1 tablespoon harissa
tahini, for drizzling 4 flatbreads

Put a little oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes.

Once the onions have had 5 minutes, add the garlic, kale stems (leaves go in later) and turmeric to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes.

While that happens cut the preserved lemon in half, remove and discard the flesh, then finely chop the peel. Add this to the pan along with the tomatoes and the chickpeas, including their liquid. If you are using jarred chickpeas you might want to add another 150ml water here, as there will be less liquid than if you are using 2 tins.

Cook for about 10 minutes, until the tomatoes have thickened and reduced. Add the reserved kale leaves and cook for a few minutes until wilted. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed (the jarred chickpeas are usually already well seasoned, so be sure to taste first). Stir in most of the parsley.

Ripple the yoghurt and harissa together in a bowl and serve with the braise, a drizzle of tahini, the last of the parsley and some warm flatbreads.