Harissa Butter Chickpeas over Garlic Yogurt

Ingredients

• 2 cans Chickpeas, canned no-salt-added, drained, rinsed and dried well
• 3 tbsp Unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp Harissa paste
• 1 tsp Ground cumin
• 1 tsp Smoked paprika
• 4 cloves Garlic, 3 sliced, 1 grated
• 1 ½ cups Plain 2% Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp juice Lemon
• 1 tsp zest Lemon
• ¾ tsp Kosher salt
• 5 cups Baby spinach, packed
• ¼ cup Fresh mint, torn
• 4 Whole wheat pita, warmed
• ¼ cup Pistachios, chopped

Method

1. Stir the yogurt with the grated garlic clove, half the lemon juice, the zest and a quarter teaspoon of the salt. Spread it across the bottom of a wide shallow bowl or four plates and put it in the fridge. Cold yogurt under hot chickpeas is the whole trick.
2. Dry the chickpeas properly on a towel. Wet chickpeas steam and stay soft; dry ones blister.
3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high and add the chickpeas in one layer. Cook 6-8 minutes, shaking occasionally, until they are browned in patches and some have split.
4. Lower the heat to medium. Add the butter, sliced garlic, harissa, cumin and paprika. Stir for 2 minutes as the butter foams and the spices bloom into it — the whole pan should go rust-coloured.
5. Add the spinach and the remaining salt and toss until it wilts, about a minute.
6. Spoon the hot chickpeas straight onto the cold yogurt without stirring. Finish with the rest of the lemon juice, the mint and pistachios. Serve with warm pita to drag through it.

Notes

✨ The restaurant touch

Spread the yogurt with the back of a spoon in one sweeping curve so it has a lip at the edge. Everything after that lands in a pool, and the plate looks composed rather than dumped.

🧒 For the kids

Harissa is properly hot. Set aside a portion of chickpeas after they crisp and before the harissa goes in, toss those with butter and a shake of paprika, and give them the yogurt on the side rather than underneath.

🌿 From the garden

Mint will take over a bed if you let it — grow it in a buried pot. Spinach is a cool-season crop here, sown in early April and again in September.

🥡 Leftovers

Store the chickpeas and yogurt separately, 3 days. Re-crisp the chickpeas in a dry skillet; do not microwave them into the yogurt.

Per serving

Computed from USDA FoodData Central values. A planning tool, not medical advice.