Msabbaha

Ingredients

• 200g dried chickpeas
• 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 120g light tahini
• 60ml lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1.25 tsp fine salt
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp sumac
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• Pickled chillies and warm flatbread, to serve

Before you cook

• Soak the chickpeas overnight in cold water with the bicarbonate of soda.
• Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
• Peel the garlic and crush it to a paste with a little of the salt.
• Squeeze the lemons.

Steps

1. Put the chickpeas in a pot, cover them with eight centimetres of fresh cold water, and bring them to a boil.
2. Skim the foam from the surface with a slotted spoon.
3. Simmer the chickpeas gently for about an hour, until they are very soft but still holding their shape rather than falling apart.
4. Scoop out a mugful of the cooking liquid and set it aside, then drain the chickpeas.
5. Whisk the tahini, garlic paste, lemon juice, cumin and remaining salt together in a bowl; it will seize into a stiff clay.
6. Whisk in the reserved chickpea cooking water a splash at a time until the sauce loosens into a pourable cream the thickness of double cream.
7. Tip the hot chickpeas into the sauce and fold them through.
8. Mash roughly a third of the chickpeas against the side of the bowl with a fork, leaving the rest whole.
9. Taste and adjust with salt and lemon; it should taste sharper than you think, since the chickpeas mute it.
10. Spread the msabbaha into a shallow bowl while it is still hot, drizzle generously with olive oil, and scatter over the sumac and parsley.
11. Serve immediately with warm flatbread and pickled chillies.