Spring has a split personality. The idea of it is nice: frolicking through carpets of bluebells while wearing pastel-coloured trousers, etcetera. But the reality is that it’s often dicey and unreliable: hot one minute, cold and/or tipping down with rain the next. This is a recipe that has a foot in both sides of spring. There’s the warm comfort of basmati rice woven through with sweet onions, harissa and chickpeas, as well as the light frivolity of green herbs and the salty freshness of feta. All the flavour and freshness of spring with none of the unpredictability.

Spring rice with feta, harissa and pine nut sauce

Prep 15 min
Cook 45 min
Serves 4

300g basmati rice
40g pine nuts
3 tbsp rose harissa – I like Belazu’s
2 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
1 unwaxed lemon, skin peeled off in strips, then juiced to get 1½ tbsp
7 tbsp olive oil
1¾ tsp fine sea salt
2 red onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 400g tin chickpeas, drained
1½ tsp ground allspice
120g baby leaf spinach, chopped
25g fresh dill, leaves picked and chopped
200g feta, crumbled to smithereens

Put the rice in a sieve, rinse under the cold tap until the water runs clear, then put in a bowl of hand-hot water and leave to soak.

Put the pine nuts in a cold pan, turn on the heat to medium and warm up, tossing them every minute or so for about five minutes in total, until nicely toasted. Tip the nuts into a medium bowl and add the harissa, tomato paste, lemon juice, three tablespoons of the oil and a quarter-teaspoon of salt.

Drain the rice well. Fill the kettle and bring it to a boil. Heat the remaining four tablespoons of oil in a wide pan for which you have a tight-fitting lid, add the onions and the remaining teaspoon and a half of salt, and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes, until soft and threatening to colour.

Add the garlic and lemon peel, cook, stirring, for two or three minutes more, then add the drained chickpeas and the allspice. Stir to mix, add the drained rice and 480ml just-boiled water from the kettle, and bring to a boil. Clap the lid on tight, turn down the heat and leave to cook for 12 minutes. Take off the heat, leave to rest, still covered, for five minutes, then fold in the spinach, dill, feta and half the pine nut sauce. Pop on the lid again and leave for another five minutes.

To serve, tip the rice mix on to a platter and dot the rest of the sauce over the top.