Moroccan Chick Pea side dish

The Wife and I went to The Gables in Chadds Ford recently for our 22nd anniversary, and I had an absolutely amazing lamb dish; loin of lamb over a bed of chick peas. The dish was clearly north African in influence, with a highly seasoned loin of lamb complemented beautifully by the creamy chick pea side dish. Ever since, I have been wanting to try to recreate the chick pea dish, and tonight I had the chance to make a first attempt at it.

Here is what I tried, out of pure guesswork (chick peas are pretty dense and would need to be cooked for a pretty long time to soften them up the way I wanted them):

• 2 cans of garbanzo beans (chick peas), drained and put into a medium sized heavy sauce pan.
• chicken stock to cover, plus about a half inch.
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• about a half teaspoon each of ground cumin and ground coriander.
• about a quarter teaspoon of turmeric for color.
• half of a red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch very thin strips.

This was brought to a boil and then reduced to a gentle simmer (mostly covered) for about 45 minutes. At the end of the first simmer I added:

• about a teaspoon of salt.
• 8 pitted green oil cured olives, sliced into chunks.
• a pinch of chipotle chili powder.
• some water to bring the pan back to covered.

This was then covered and simmered for another half hour. It was then served with a mustard grilled pork loin, and was a pretty good approximation of the dish I was trying to recreate. Next time around I will cook this very much like this, but will season it a little more. It could use a little more cumin, a little more garlic, and a little more green olive (cut into pieces of maybe 1/6 of an olive instead of chunked up smaller).

This would be a good legume side dish served with lamb, pork, or chicken.