Chickpea Fatteh

فتة حمص

(Fattet Hummus)

Category: Main

Serves: 2 (easily doubled)

Cuisine: Syrian/Lebanese

Source: YouTube/Middle Eats

=> Original recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tin (~450g) of chickpeas

• Salt

• Cumin

• Aleppo pepper (optional)

• Black pepper

• Paprika

• 4 pitta breads (the small, oval kind that are common in UK supermarkets)

• 2 tbsp pine nuts

• 2 tbsp butter (ghee if available)

• 175g thick Greek yoghurt

• 125g tahini

• 4 cloves of garlic

• 3 tbsp lemon juice

• Chopped mint (optional, to garnish)

• Pomegranate seeds (optional, to garnish)

Method

1. Drain 450g tin of chickpeas and empty into a saucepan

2. Add 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp cumin, 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (optional) to the chickpeas

3. Add 1.5l water

4. Heat on high, bring to a boil, then let it sit and boil for 20-30 mins

5. While the chickpeas are boiling, cut up 4 pitta breads into bitesize chunks

6. Add 1 inch of cooking oil to a pan and heat on high

7. Turn the heat down to med-high and fry the bread chunks for 15-30s (until just starting to turn brown)

8. Drain fried bread on kitchen towels

9. Sprinkle with ¼ tsp salt and ⅛ tsp pepper

10. Fry 2 tbsp pine nuts in ½ tbsp butter (med-high heat, ~3 mins, stirring the whole time) until golden brown

11. Drain pine nuts on kitchen towels

12. The chickpeas should be soft by now; empty them out into a sieve, making sure to keep the liquid that they were cooking in

13. Put 175g thick Greek yoghurt to into a food processor

14. Add 125g tahini

15. Add 3 cloves of garlic, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp cumin, 3 tbsp lemon juice, half of the chickpeas and 1 cup of the chickpea liquid

16. Blitz for ~2-3 mins; add more liquid if it's still too thick (the sauce should be smooth and a bit runny and pourable, like a thickish gravy)

17. Add the bread to a mixing bowl

18. Add ¼ cup of the chickpea liquid (just enough to moisten the bread, not enough to make it soggy)

19. Crush half a clove of garlic into the moist bread

20. Add half of the chickpeas to the bread and set the other half aside for the topping

21. Mix thoroughly

22. Add a few tbsp of the sauce and mix until well combined

23. Pour out into serving bowls

24. Add some of the remaining chickpeas (maybe half of what's left?)

25. Pour over the remaining sauce

26. Melt 1½ tbsp of butter until sizzling, then pour over the bowl (optional, but traditional)

27. Top with the remaining chickpeas, the pine nuts and a sprinkle of paprika

28. Garnish with chopped mint and pomegranate seeds (optional)

Verdict

=> Finished

• Massive success! Absolutely delicious

• Not quite the quick midweek dinner they suggest in the video, but well worth it

• I assumed that 1 cup = 250-300ml (one slightly overfilled 250ml jug)

• I assumed that 1 clove of garlic = ¼ tsp garlic granules

• I used salted butter

• I subbed mixed seeds for the pine nuts and parsley for the mint

• Pomegranate very much not optional; the dish is much, much better off with them! We put more on as we went

• This is the heavier Syrian version, but there is a Lebanese version which is lighter and better suited to breakfast or lunch (see Middle Eats' video on Lebanese breakfast dishes, below)

=> Middle Eats: 4 AMAZING Lebanese Breakfast Dishes