Harissa black bean ragout with butternut squash

4.00

This black bean stew recipe might look simple, but the flavour goes far beyond the humble list of ingredients. The cumin and harissa give the dish a Middle Eastern twang, and the whole thing is incredibly simple to cook. This recipe is taken from Bazaar by Sabrina Ghayour (Mitchell Beazley, £26). Photography by Kris Kirkham.

First published in 2019

OK, so this dish isn’t much of a looker, but never judge a book by its cover. I could happily eat this for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Pile it onto toast, top with an egg or just ladle it into a bowl and serve with a nice hunk of toasted bread: pure comfort.

Ingredients

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Imperial

Method

1
Heat a large saucepan over a medium-low heat and add enough olive oil to coat the base of the pan. Add the onion and cook for about 6–8 minutes, or until soft and translucent, without browning
2
Add the garlic granules and spices, then stir in the beans, adding a little more oil if you feel you need more to coat the beans, and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly, then season generously with salt and pepper
3
Pour 1 litre of the boiling water into the saucepan and stir well. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for 25–30 minutes
4
Mix in the butternut squash pieces (adding them at this stage will make them pleasingly dark in colour when cooked), rose harissa and the remaining boiling water. Taste and adjust the seasoning if desired, then cook for a further 30 minutes, or until the butternut squash is cooked through. Stir a little harissa through some Greek yoghurt and serve with the ragout

A chef, food writer and cookery teacher, Sabrina Ghayour is one of the strongest voices in Middle Eastern food today.

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