Confit Tandoori Chickpeas

This dish is my take on Yotam Ottolenghi confit tandoori chickpeas. This confit tandoori chickpea dish is the perfect way to spice up your chickpeas. It make the perfect appetizer, or meal. Feel free to enjoy them with some flat bread and fresh vegetables or enjoy over rice as well. As you can see from my photo I enjoy it will flat bread, fresh vegetables, rice and deep fried tofu !!!

I thought this tandoori version add some nice warming spice to them, especially what I carve in the winter months. This vegan chickpea tandoori recipe really hits the spot and I recommend trying it out- it's really simple and easy to make, requires few ingredients to create this flavourful dish.

Confit simply means to slow cook in fat. Baking chickpeas low and slow in extra virgin olive oil with all the tandoori spices and tomatoes renders them creamy and flavourful. Serve with a herby yoghurt dressing.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2x 400g tins chickpeas, drained
• 10 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 30g fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
• 300g cherry tomatoes
• 3 red chillies, to taste, slit open lengthways
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tbsp tandoori curry powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• 200ml olive oil
• 1 tsp salt

For the yoghurt dressing:

• 2-3 limes, 1 juice and the others cut into wedges
• 10 tbsp roughly chopped fresh mint leaves
• 10 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 180g Greek-style yoghurt
• ½ tsp salt
• pitta bread or rice for serving, optional

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/150ºC for fan assist oven.

Roughly crush the cumin and coriander seed in a pestle and mortar. Combine the crushed spices with the drained chickpeas, whole garlic, ginger, tomatoes, chillies, tomato puree, turmeric, tandoori curry powder, sugar, oil and salt in a large, ovenproof sauté pan for which you have a lid. Stir to combine, then cover and cook in the oven for 1¼ hours or until the aromatics have softened and tomatoes have broken down. Stir once halfway through the cooking time.

To make the yoghurt dressing: Combine 1 tbsp lime juice with the mint, coriander, crushed garlic, yoghurt and salt in a small bowl of a food processor. Blend until smooth.

Serve the chickpeas directly from the pan or transfer them to a shallow serving platter, with yoghurt and lime wedges. Or you can serve as how I serve in a large platter with fresh vegetables, pitta bread and rice.