Smoked paprika is the single most valuable spice in this kind of cooking. It supplies the thing tinned food most obviously lacks — the suggestion that something was cooked over fire — and it does it instantly, for almost no weight.
- Warm the oil in the pan and add the dried onion. Let it rehydrate and soften for two or three minutes; it will smell sweet rather than dusty when it is ready. This step is what stops dried onion tasting like powder.
- Add the garlic, smoked paprika and cumin. Thirty seconds, stirring, off the heat if the pan is fierce — paprika scorches easily and there is no coming back from it.
- Tomatoes in, then the chickpeas with about half their liquid. The liquid is starchy and it will thicken the stew.
- Simmer twenty minutes, pressing a few of the chickpeas against the side of the pan as you go. Those broken ones are what turn it from a soup with chickpeas in into a stew.
- Salt to taste, then the vinegar off the heat.
The vinegar at the end is not a garnish. Taste it before and after and you will hear the whole dish come into focus.
Serves 4 with bread, 2 as a main course on its own.