Turkish Squash & Chickpea Stew

As part of my Turkish cookery challenge for Ainsley Harriott's SoupSearch competition, I got a butternut squash, a tin of chick peas, some sweet potatoes, and a packet of apricots. Making a spicy stew seemed like the obvious next step, so I invented the following Turkish-inspired dish, along with menemen (Turkish scrambled eggs).

We only had half an hour of cooking time, so I chopped the vegetables into really small pieces, to make sure they cooked through and absorbed the flavour of the spices. But if you don't have a time limit, you could chop them into bigger chunks and cook for longer.


Squash & Chickpea Stew Recipe

2tbsp olive oil
1/2 butternut squash
1 large sweet potato
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tin chickpeas
100ml vegetable stock
2tbsp tomato puree
½ cup dried apricot pieces
2tsp sumac
1tsp ground cumin
2tbsp sesame seeds
1tbsp fresh thyme
2tbsp fresh mint

1. Chop the squash and sweet potato into 1cm cubes. Finely chop the onion, and quarter the apricots.
2. Heat the oil in a deep pan and fry the butternut squash for 5 minutes until soft.
3. Add the onion, garlic, sesame seeds, and sweet potato, and fry for a further 2-3 minutes.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients to the pan, and simmer for 10 minutes until the stock has mostly evaporated.
5. Garnish with an extra sprinkle of sesame seeds and a sprig of mint.