chicken, aubergine and lentil stew

I was incredibly impressed with this recipe; it was absolutely delicious and to prove the point, we ate it two nights in a row. Originally a Good Food recipe, it attracted my attention with the use of an exotic spice blend (baharat) and pomegranate. And I wasn’t disappointed.

I did a really good job of sticking to the recipe, only managing one slip up with a grilled aubergine, which, in my opinion, was undoubtedly an improvement. The “sauce” was thickened with red lentils and flavoured with stock, mint and of course baharat. I found the secret of successful use of dried apricots in stews: (obviously apart from resisting the temptation to eat them all from the packet) chopping very finely. In this way you never get a whole overpowering mouthful of apricot. The chicken was moist (well as moist as chicken can be), and very necessary to give the dish substance. Having said this I would be tempted to try lamb instead next time.

I ate this stew with brown basmati rice: perfect. However Dan insisted on white rice (which is what you can see in the photograph).

Ingredients:

olive oil

1 large onion , chopped

1 tbsp root ginger , grated

2 garlic cloves , chopped

4 skinless chicken breasts , cut into chunks

2 tsp baharat

100g red lentils

10 ready-to-eat apricots , finely chopped

1 lemon , juiced

750ml chicken stock

a handful of mint or coriander (or both), chopped

a handful of pomegranate seeds (optional)

1 large aubergine, chopped

1.     Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Add the onion, ginger and garlic, and season. Cook for 8 minutes and then add the chicken. Cook for 5 minutes and then add the spice blend, lentils, apricots and lemon juice. Grill aubergine until cooked.

2.     Stir in 750ml of stock and aubergine. Simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the herbs and pomegranate seeds (if using) and serve with rice or couscous.