Ingredients
The chickpeas
- 500 gdried chickpeas
- soaked overnight
- plenty of water
- 1 teaspoonsalt
To dress
- 2 teaspoonsground cumin
- juice of 2 lemons
- chilli powder, to taste
- salt
- a little olive oil, optional
Sometimes added
- 1 teaspoonground coriander
- chopped parsley
- a pinch of black pepper
To serve
- hot in a cup or bowl
- with some of the broth
- from a steaming pot
Directions
- Serve it with a good ladle of it. Sellers keep a pot steaming on a cart. Rinse the chickpeas thoroughly. Pick out any stones or damaged ones. Pick through them all properly.
- Cover them well with cold water. They swell to about twice their size. Use a bowl far larger than they look to need. Cover them with plenty of water. Top it up if they rise above it. Soaking them takes a whole night. Leave them to soak there overnight. Eight hours is the minimum for them.
- Drain all of the soaked chickpeas. Discard all of the soaking water. Rinse them all once more after. Put them into a large heavy pot. Cover them well with fresh water. Cover them by a good few centimetres.
- Top it up with hot water as needed. Bring the pot up to a full boil. Skim off any foam that rises up. Grey foam rises in the first minutes.
- Let them simmer for about ninety minutes. Add the salt partway through cooking. Salt added at the very start can toughen skins. Add it once they are starting to soften. Judging them takes a firm squeeze.
- Squeeze a chickpea between your fingers. It should crush easily and completely. Cook them on if they resist at all. Do not drain the broth away at all. Add hot water if it has reduced too far. There should be enough broth to serve. Ladle chickpeas and broth into cups. Sprinkle ground cumin over each cup.
- Squeeze lemon juice over each cup. Add chilli powder to your taste. Add a little salt over it as well. A light dusting is not enough. Serve it with a spoon in the cup. It keeps three days refrigerated.
Technique
- The chickpeas are served in their cooking water rather than drained, and that broth is part of the dish — it carries the flavour of the long boil and is spooned up with them. Draining it loses much of the flavour and makes the snack dry.
- Very old dried chickpeas resist cooking and no amount of boiling fixes them, so buy from a shop with good turnover — it matters more than people expect. Add salt partway through rather than at the start, since salt at the very beginning can toughen the skins.
- Everything is dressed on at the last moment, cup by cup, rather than stirred into the pot: cumin generously, then lemon, chilli and salt. That keeps the cumin’s aroma fresh and is how the sellers do it.
Substitutions
- A very small pinch of bicarbonate of soda helps stubborn chickpeas soften, though it destroys some vitamins and tastes soapy if overdone; many cooks use none.
- A little olive oil drizzled over at serving is done by some sellers and not others.
Variations
- Pick through dried chickpeas for stones before soaking, since one stone can break a tooth.
- They should be soft enough almost to melt rather than firm — this is not a salad chickpea.
- It is served mostly chickpeas with just enough broth to moisten them, rather than as a soup.
History
An old Kuwait City street snack sold near the souq and on the seafront from steaming pots.
Frequently asked questions
What is Nikhi?
Nikhi is a street food from Kuwait: hot boiled chickpeas in their broth, dressed with cumin, lemon and chilli. An old Kuwait City street snack sold near the souq and on the seafront from steaming pots.
How long does Nikhi take to make?
Nikhi takes 10 minutes plus soaking of preparation and 1 hour 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Nikhi?
Yes, within limits. A very small pinch of bicarbonate of soda helps stubborn chickpeas soften, though it destroys some vitamins and tastes soapy if overdone; many cooks use none. A little olive oil drizzled over at serving is done by some sellers and not others.
What is the most important thing to get right in Nikhi?
Squeeze a chickpea between your fingers. It should crush easily and completely. Cook them on if they resist at all. Do not drain the broth away at all. Add hot water if it has reduced too far. There should be enough broth to serve. Ladle chickpeas and broth into cups. Sprinkle ground cumin over each cup.
