Chorizo and Chickpeas in Paprika-Tomato Sauce

I love food-- cooking, eating or even looking at it. I like going to Borough Market even if I know I can't afford the gourmet ingredients or delicacies there. But on a recent trip, I don't know what came over me and I got half a chorizo sausage. I think it was the recent Nigel Slater chorizo and chickpea stew video that I was watching on BBC iplayer, plus the smell of the sizzling chorizos outside Brindisa, that convinced the poor miser side of my brain to get it.

Then I realised I got the wrong chorizo, you want the soft semi-cured chorizo for cooking. The fully cured one, which I got, is much harder and can be sliced thinly and eaten 'raw' as tapas or over crusty bread, kind of like Italian salami or Chinese lap cheong. And is more expensive. Boo. It isn't that bad though, because in a cured sausage, the meat develops so much flavour over time that you need less to flavour the food it goes into, also it's like meat compressed, so there's more than you see. It was about 2.50 pounds for that and I think i can squeeze 4 servings from that, especially beefed up with legumes and vegetables.

I decided to make the most out of my mistake, and converted the Plan A paprika-tomato stew gravy into a paprika-tomato sauce to go over the seared chorizo and cooked chickpeas. And was very happy that I made a "mistake" (:

Chorizo and Chickpeas in Paprika-Tomato Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients

About 1/2 of half a cured chorizo horseshoe-shaped sausage, sliced into 1-cm thick coins (I'm sorry I really don't know how much that is in grams. but you don't have to be too accurate!)

1 cup of (soaked, then) cooked chickpeas (reserve about 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid)

1 large onion, sliced thinly

1 large tomato, diced (or you can use about 1/4 cup of canned tomatoes)

1 tsp of paprika

1 tsp of chilli powder (or more or less depending on how manly you are ;)

1 sprig of fresh thyme (or you can use dried!)

splash of balsamic vinegar

1/2 tbsp of evoo (don't need a lot because of the fat in the chorizo)

To serve

about 2 tbsp of chopped fresh parsley

zest of half a lemon

Method

1. Over medium high heat, sear the chorizo slices in the olive oil on both sides. It should ooze out some wonderful paprika-infused oil of its own.

2. Add the onions and saute till they turn translucent.

3. Add the herbs and spices, diced tomato and splash of balsamic vinegar, and continue cooking till the tomato fully cooks down.

4. Add the cooked chickpeas plus a bit of the cooking liquid and then simmer until all the juices and liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens and becomes quite sticky.

5. Serve with the chopped fresh parsley and lemon zest tossed through to brighten everything up!

If you love sizzling sausages or salami and smoky sweet spicy sour sticky sauces (I'm getting really good at alliteration huh), you'll love this!

This is an entry for My Legume Love Affair#31, the "Make it with Paprika Mondays" Challenge, and Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.