Saturday dinner – Slow roast lamb and Middle eastern rice with chickpeas and beans

This time to accompany my 4-7 hour lamb leg I made middle eastern spiced rice with chickpeas and beans. I remember the first times I started cooking things like biriani my husband would comment that this is very nice – like a biriani but Scandinavian style. And that wasn’t even the time I made it with reindeer meat. This time though, he said it was like something you might be served in an Arab wedding. And having been to a few myself I know that was a real compliment.

I also made and easy garlic bread from a shop bought ciabatta and roast potatoes with a touch of ground cumin and coriander.

Middle eastern rice with chickpeas and black beans (original recipe)

This recipe is exactly as it appears in All Recipes with the omission of turkey, but feel free to tweak the spices according to your liking, I was careful with the cayenne, but generous with the rest.

Olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup uncooked basmati rice

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1 litre chicken stock

400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

400g can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 bunch chopped fresh coriander (optional)

1 bunch chopped fresh parsley (optional)

1/4 cup pine nuts (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Stir in rice, cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir for 5 minutes.

Pour in the chicken stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 mins. Mix in chickpeas, black beans, Coriander, parsley and pine nuts into the rice. Season with salt and pepper.

Easy garlic bread

Shop bought ciabatta or baguette

2-3 garlic gloves, pressed 

60 grams of butter, softened

herbs of your choice (rosemary, parsley anything), chopped

salt and pepper

Slice baguette leaving it intact in the bottom (about 1 cm) so you still have a whole loaf. Mix butter, garlic and herbs. Add a pinch of pepper and if you are using unsalted butter a pinch of salt as well. Spread the butter between the slices. Scrunch a sheet of non-stick baking parchment and wet it well under a running tab and squeeze excess water out. Wrap the bread in the parchment and bake in 200 C for around 15 min.