Lablabi (Tunisian Chick Pea Stew)

This week MENA dish saw us looking to Tunisia. When I saw the recipes I was so drawn to the chick pea soup / stew option, as my little boy and my husband love chickpeas. Looking into the dish more I realised that for the Tunisians they eat this for breakfast, however we decided to have it for lunch, coming from Australia I found it a little hard to stomach beans and lentils for breakfast. My husband being from the Middle East himself has no issues with beans for breakfast.

This dish was super easy to cook and very tasty, however I did not have harrissa paste or sauce when I decided to cook this. To improvise I used harrisa spice mix and fresh tomatoes.

Ingredients (serves four)

• 2 cups chick peas
• 4 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of harissa spice mix
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• salt and pepper
• 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• half a loaf of stale focaccia bread

Soak chickpeas overnight, drain and rinse when ready to use. In a deep saucepan fry minced garlic in half of the oil, add spices and cook off until fragrant. Add to saucepan chopped tomato, chickpeas and water. Bring this to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 30 to 40 minutes or until chick peas are cooked to your liking.

Roughly chop bread into small pieces add to soup, add lemon juice and drizzle over remaining olive oil and serve.