Nigel Slater’s chickpea and nectarine couscous recipe

The recipe

Peel and dice 1 red onion and put it into a small bowl with 3 tbsps of red-wine vinegar. Set aside for 30 minutes for the onion to soften.

Put 500ml of vegetable stock on to boil. Put 250g of couscous into a bowl then, when the stock is boiling, pour it over the grain, cover and set aside.

Toast 50g of skinned whole almonds in a pan till golden. Tip them into a bowl, add a couple of drops of olive oil and a grinding of salt then toss them gently and set aside.

Halve, stone and dice 2 ripe nectarines or peaches. Toss them in a little lemon juice to stop them discolouring. Remove the leaves from a bunch of flat-leaved parsley and roughly chop half of them. Leave the remaining leaves whole unless they are very large. Remove and roughly chop the leaves from a couple of sprigs of mint and mix with the chopped parsley.

Put 4 tbsp of olive oil in a small mixing bowl and stir in 1 heaped tsp of ras el hanout and half a tsp of ground, hot or sweet, paprika.

Remove the cover from the couscous, then run a fork gently through it to separate the grains. Drain and rinse a 400g can of chickpeas and fold through the warm couscous. Fold in the diced nectarines, the chopped and whole herb leaves and the onion, drained of its vinegar. Season lightly with salt then add the toasted almonds and divide between two plates. Trickle the ras el hanout and paprika dressing over the couscous and serve. Enough for 2.
The trick

Ras el hanout, the North African spice mix contains different proportions of spices according to who mixes it. Generally made with the sweeter spices cumin, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and turmeric, there is also usually a little mild or hot chilli too. As the spices in ras el hanout are already toasted, you can fork it through the grain towards the end of cooking or, as I have done here, directly into the dressing. It is available from most major food stores.
The twist

Plums would be an interesting replacement for the nectarines, again making sure they are ripe. You could also introduce some meat in the form of roasted chicken breast. Or perhaps jagged lumps of feta cheese that you have marinated for an hour in olive oil, chopped basil and mint leaves and lemon juice.


Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk

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