For a micronutrient rich diet

Coronation chickpeas

The A to V - foods rich in magnesium

This is stolen from a Guardian recipe by the man, the myth, the legend that is Ottolenghi. It sounds utterly BIZARRE, but having tried it I can confirm that although rather unorthodox, if you like chickpeas and spice then this is the recipe for you.

A riff on the British classic 'Coronation Chicken' (which, when you really think about it, is a pretty weird recipe anyway) this works whether hot or cold. Incidentally, Coronation Chicken as we know it was only invented in 1953, for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Which just goes to show how quickly food and cultural traditions can be constructed.

Apologies for the rather long list of ingredients here - I reckon this would still work without all of the spices. And apologies to Ottolenghi, whose recipe I have adapted as I was feeling too lazy to bother with all the steps in the original recipe.

What's the A to V?

Chickpeas are a great source of manganese, molybdenum and sulphur, and the peanuts in this recipe are high in biotin (vitamin B7) plus good old copper

Ingredients (serves 2 to 3):

1 x 400g tin of chickpeas (drained)

1 small white onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, chopped into rounds

1 and 1/2 tbsps of olive oil

1/2 tsp of turmeric

1/2 tsp of mustard seeds

1 tsp of cumin

1 tsp curry powder or garam masala

1 piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 and 1/2 tbsp of tomato puree

1 and 1/2 tbsp apricot jam

20g of golden raisins

50g yogurt (plain or coconut)

6 dried curry leaves

1 red chilli, finely sliced into rounds (remove the seeds if you want to downgrade the spice)

Handful of salted peanuts

1-2 spring onions (depending on preference), chopped

Coriander or mint to garnish

corchick2.jpg

Method

Heat the olive oil in a pan. When hot, add your garlic and onion with a pinch of salt, and cook for around 5-7 minutes until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add your dry spices, ginger, tomato paste and the drained chickpeas. Give everything a good stir, and add 200ml of water.

Add the apricot jam, raisins, and season well with salt and pepper. Cook for ten minutes until the liquid has reduced, then turn off the hot and leave to cool. Then stir in the yogurt.

In a separate pan, heat half a tbsp of oil, and fry off the curry leaves and chilli. Cook for 5-7 minutes until the chill begins to brown, and then sprinkle the chilli and curry leaves over the chickpea mixture along with the spring onions and peanuts.

Serve with a sprinkling of coriander or mint. This goes really well with lettuce leaves, pitta bread, or rice.