I have to thank the wonderful recipes of Anna Jones for this one really – her recipe for a chickpea stew showed me the wonders of adding a whole preserved lemon to simmering tomatoes, extracting a beautifully rich yet fresh flavour.

It was also blessed relief that I might one day be able to finish the jar of preserved lemons that I excitedly bought some months previously only to discover that they were at best an acquired taste and when the taste was indeed acquired, each recipe called for only a very small quantity of the sharp fruits.

If your views on preserved lemons are a little tainted then I’d strongly urge you to try this trick – the finished article tastes nothing like a slice of the fruit and yet without it, the dish would be nothing.

The recipe can be easily adapted – bulked back up to Anna’s original ‘stew’ for a main course or, omitting the chickpeas, reduced down to a thick sauce for a firm white fish (monkfish, swordfish or hake come to mind) or indeed chicken.

I added some seafood anti-pasti to the soup – I have done it before with freshly cooked baby squid but there is something exquisite about the soft texture which results from the anti-pasti method which really lent itself to this simple bowl of warming soup.

This soup really is quick to make (30 minutes tops) and if your store cupboard has found itself with a jar of preserved lemons, can be made almost entirely from ingredients you are likely to have to hand – substituting the fresh veg with whatever needs eating.

Serves 2

Ingredients

Tomato Passata	200	grams
Chickpeas (1 tin)	240	grams
Stock Cube (fish, chicken or veg)	1
Red Pepper	1
Spinch	100	grams
Preserved Lemon	1	fruit
Seafood or shredded cooked chicken (Optional)	150	grams

Equipment

Nothing special!

Method

1. Bring the passata to a gentle simmer.
2. Meanwhile, slice the pepper into 1 cm cubes. (Don’t forget the trick for removing the core cleanly – push the core into the whole pepper before opening. No waste this way!)
3. Add the stock cube to the passata and top up with boiling water – 300ml at a guess. Enough to make slightly more liquid than you want to finish with. Match your stock cube with anything you plan to pair the soup with – fish, chicken or simply vegetable.
4. Add the preserved lemon – leaving it whole.
5. Add the pepper cubes and simmer until soft – 15 minutes ish.
6. Drain the chickpeas and add to the pan. These just need warming through.
7. Pile in the spinach, pop the lid on for a minute or so to allow the steam to wilt the leaves.
8. Stir – if the preserved lemon is super-soft, break it up with the back of a wooden spoon and stir in. Else remove it and add back slices to taste. Even if you remove it completely, it will have done its job of flavouring the tomatoes.
9. Stir and serve, topped with your choice of seafood or chicken for a more substantial meal or simply as it is.