
This recipe features the famous North African spice mix Ras el Hanout. In English, the name means “head of the shop” referring to the best spices in the house. This incredibly flavourful blend of spices goes great with nutty and tender sprouted chickpeas and soft and sweet sprouted brown rice. Don’t be intimidated by the number of spices, you probably have all of them in your spice rack already, and the recipe will make much more than you need. The leftover spice blend would make an amazing seasoning for salmon or chicken, or save and use for the next time you make this recipe!
Sprouted brown rice has a lovely delicate texture and subtly sweet flavour that’s excellent at taking on the rich Moroccan flavours. Sprouted chickpeas add a good dose of protein to the dish, and sprouting helps with digestion, eliminates the need for pre-soaking and reduces their cook time. The lemony dressing adds the perfect balance of fat, acid and spice, and like curries, it only gets better with time, so make sure you save some leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch!
The method for the recipe is simple, just cook your sprouted chickpeas and rice, then throw everything into a pan and sauté. That’s it! We used a cast iron pan to help get a nice char on the vegetables, but you can also use any large frying pan. If your pan doesn’t have a lid, a similar sized pot lid or some tinfoil should do the trick (we used the lid from our largest pot). Covering helps cook the carrots faster. We tried not to stir too often to encourage some browning on the veggies.