In Which Monday Menu Mayhem Makes Chorizo and Chickpea Stew

This is one I've been dying to make pretty much since I got the book.

First of all it uses bulgur wheat, which I have never worked with.  And the first step calls to toast bits of angel hair pasta, which is then cooked with the wheat.  I also have decided that two of my new favorite things are chorizo and chickpeas, so... yeah.  That part's pretty self-explanatory.  Behold:

Needless to say, this stew was incredibly filling.  And with the presence of apricot pieces and cinnamon, it's a little bit... weird.  Like, "I'm pretty unsure about these first couple of bites" weird.  Boy Scout was seriously skeptical.  But by the end of the meal he had announced that it was perfect, don't change a thing in the future, and I'm almost with him.

This Egyptian-inspired dish (taught to Nigella herself by an Egyptian friend) uses things in (what we would consider) unusual combination.  You know, like cinnamon and apricots and chorizo and canned tomatoes.  But it was delicious and wholesome.  And it was quick and easy to make.

I think in the future I would omit the apricots, or at least, I wouldn't freak out if I made the dish and forgot them.  They definitely added flavor, but the savory-spiciness was so good, it was almost jarring to have that extra bit of sweet, too.  Definitely worth investigating.

Once again we have a dish that was probably better the next day (Boy Scout?), but once again it does perfectly well on day one.

Hooray for Monday!