Moroccan Vegetable Casserole with homemade cooked chickpeas and homemade vegetable stock

👨‍🍳 Method

For the homemade cooked chickpeas ✓ Homemade · or skip – back to store-bought

1. 1
   Soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of cold water.

   Bowl

   💡Soak in plenty of water, well above what's being soaked: legumes and grains swell and drink water, and whatever sticks out stays hard. Drain well before continuing.
2. 2
   Drain, cover with plenty of unsalted water and cook 1.5–2 hours, skimming off the foam and skins from time to time, until the chickpeas are very soft and crush easily between your fingers.

   ColanderStovePot

   💡Fully cooked chickpeas crush between your fingers with no resistance at all. Chickpeas that stay a little firm make a grainy spread, and no amount of tahini will fix it.
3. 3
   Drain, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid.

   Colander

For the Fried onion

1. 4
   Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.

   StoveLarge pot
2. 5
   Add the onion and fry for 8 minutes, stirring, until the onion turns golden.

   Stove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.

To assemble

1. 6
   Add the garlic, cumin, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, chili pepper, salt and black pepper and stir.
2. 7
   Put the onion, carrot, celery, parsley, garlic, bay leaves and thyme in a large pot with the cold water.

   Large pot

   💡Start with cold water: the vegetables release their flavor slowly as the water heats up.
3. 8
   Bring to a boil over high heat and skim off the foam.

   Stove
4. 9
   Turn down to medium-low heat and simmer uncovered 30–45 minutes.

   Stove

   💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.
5. 10
   Strain the stock through a fine sieve.

   Fine sieve
6. 11
   Add the carrot, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and stock and bring to a boil.

   Stove
7. 12
   Turn down the heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.

   StoveLid
8. 13
   Add the zucchini and chickpeas and cook another 15 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender.

   Stove

   💡Hard vegetables (carrot, eggplant) go in first, and zucchini only toward the end of cooking: that way they're all tender and none fall apart.
9. 14
   Sprinkle the cilantro on top.
10. 15
    Serve the stew with couscous.