Spiced apricot and chickpea couscous with mint

Serves - 4

You’ll need

• 250g couscous
• 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 100g dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 1 small red onion, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 350ml vegetable stock, hot
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Small handful mint, finely chopped
• Small handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 40g flaked almonds, toasted, optional
• Sea salt
• Black pepper

Method

1. Start the base

Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the red onion with a pinch of salt and cook for 5–6 minutes until softened. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander and cinnamon and cook for another minute, just until everything smells like it is heading somewhere promising.

2. Warm the chickpeas and apricots

Add the chickpeas and chopped apricots to the pan and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring so they get coated in all the spiced oniony goodness. You are not trying to do anything dramatic here – just wake everything up and get the flavours acquainted.

3. Cook the couscous

Put the couscous into a large bowl and pour over the hot vegetable stock. Add the remaining olive oil, cover the bowl with a plate or cling film, and leave it for 5 minutes. Once the liquid has been absorbed, fluff it up with a fork so it stays light rather than clumping together in one determined mass.

4. Bring it all together

Tip the chickpea and apricot mixture into the couscous. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, most of the mint and most of the parsley, then season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Toss everything together gently until well mixed. It should feel warm, fragrant and nicely balanced between savoury and sweet.

5. Finish properly

Have a taste and add a little more lemon juice or salt if it needs it. Scatter over the remaining herbs and the toasted almonds, if using. That final bit of freshness and crunch does a lot of useful work.

6. Serve

Serve warm or at room temperature. It is very good on its own, but equally happy alongside roast vegetables, grilled aubergines or a few extra herbs and leaves if you want to make more of a meal of it.

A couple of helpful notes

- If your apricots are particularly dry, soak them in hot water for 10 minutes before chopping so they soften up a little.
- Toasted almonds are not essential, but they do give the whole thing a very welcome bit of crunch.
- This holds up well for lunch the next day, and often tastes even better once the flavours have had a little more time to settle in.