Recipes › Lettuce (Butterhead) › Warm Butterhead Lettuce and Chickpea Salad with Preserved Lemon and Harissa
Warm Butterhead Lettuce and Chickpea Salad with Preserved Lemon and Harissa
A bold, North African-inspired salad where chickpeas are fried until golden and crisp, then tossed with wilted butterhead leaves, preserved lemon, and a smoky harissa dressing. The butterhead lettuce does something wonderful here — it half-wilts in the heat of the pan, turning silky and sweet while holding just enough structure to carry the chickpeas. Ready in under 25 minutes and substantial enough to eat as a main.
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Ingredients
- 2 Butterhead lettuce, leaves separated, larger leaves torn in half
- 800 g tinned chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and thoroughly dried with a clean tea towelor use tinned butter beans
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp rose harissa pasteregular harissa works fine, use 1.5 tbsp if it's very hot
- 1 preserved lemon, skin only, finely chopped, pulp discardedor use 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice and 1 tsp finely grated zest
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 20 g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
- 30 g toasted flaked almonds (optional)omit to keep nut-free
Contains: milk, nuts, sulphites.
Method
- Pat the drained chickpeas very dry with a clean tea towel — this is the step most people skip, and it's the reason your chickpeas will fry crisp rather than steam and turn soggy. Set aside.About 2 min
- Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large, wide frying pan or sauté pan over a high heat. Once the oil is shimmering and just beginning to smoke, add the chickpeas in a single layer. Leave them undisturbed for 3 minutes, then shake the pan and cook for a further 3 minutes until deeply golden and blistered on the outside.About 6 min
- Reduce the heat to medium. Push the chickpeas to the edges of the pan and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the centre. Add the sliced garlic, ground cumin and ground coriander and fry for 90 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant and just turning golden. Do not let the garlic brown too dark or it will turn bitter.About 2 min
- Add the harissa paste and stir everything together, coating the chickpeas thoroughly. Cook for 1 minute to cook out the paste and deepen its flavour.About 1 min
- Remove the pan from the heat. Add the red wine vinegar and chopped preserved lemon skin, and stir to combine. The vinegar will sizzle and loosen any caramelised bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Immediately add all the butterhead lettuce leaves to the pan and fold them gently through the hot chickpeas using tongs. The residual heat will wilt the leaves to a soft, silky texture within about 1 minute — you want them collapsed but not completely cooked down. Work quickly.About 1 min
- Taste and season with flaky sea salt. Transfer everything to a wide serving dish or divide between four bowls. Scatter over the chopped parsley and the toasted flaked almonds if using. Serve immediately.About 2 min
Tips
- Drying the chickpeas properly is non-negotiable — spread them on a clean tea towel and press another towel on top, rolling them around to get all surface moisture off. Wet chickpeas will spit oil at you and never crisp properly.
- The lettuce must go in off the heat or right at the very end. It only needs 60 seconds of contact with the hot pan — any longer and you'll lose the silky, just-wilted texture that makes this dish work.
- Preserved lemons vary wildly in saltiness. Taste yours before adding, and hold back on extra salt until you've tried the finished dish.
Ring the changes
- Add a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes after the harissa for a brothier, more stew-like version — reduce for 5 minutes before adding the lettuce.
- Crumble 100g of feta over the finished dish if you are not cooking for vegans — the salty, creamy cheese is a very natural match with the harissa and lemon.
Keeping it
This dish is best eaten immediately — the lettuce will continue to wilt and release water as it sits. The spiced chickpeas alone will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days; reheat in a hot pan and add fresh lettuce when serving.
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