I soaked an entire saucepan of chickpeas, intending to make hummus. 3 days later, they were languishing the fridge and I was in needs of a simple, yet satisfying dinner. I actually followed the recipe for “Chickpea Stew” in Super Natural Everyday to a t – very odd for me! While I don’t think that the weight of the soup really qualifies as stew, it is a hearty soup with an incredibly rich flavor, thanks to saffron, greek yogurt, and egg yolks (!) While the ingredients are simple, you do need to pay a bit of attention to how you deal with the egg yolks and hot liquid – you don’t want them to cook and curdle. A little patience and whisking, though, and you’ll be rewarded with such richness, you’ll be glad you used that extra bowl.

In my usual way, I wanted to fit more vegetables into this meal, so I briefly considered adding chopped swiss chard, but when I decided to just braise it lightly and serve it on the side with grated pecorino and sourdough bread, I knew that I had made the right choice – the chard would have weighed the soup down in an uneven way. Just consider this “stew” part of a simple meal, and not the whole meal!