Oxtail and chickpea stew — a Honey & Co recipe

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We wanted a good hearty soup for our bakery’s lunch menu, something filling and rich that can give succour and comfort to our guests on a grey midday without causing a food-induced coma. Julia, our executive chef, reminded us of the oxtail soup we used to serve when we just opened, which we loved but somehow stopped making and then forgot all about.

We consider ourselves to be quite organised, especially when it comes to recipes, but this one was nowhere to be found. But we knew the ingredients and we remembered the flavours and the feel of the dish, so it was only a matter of getting the ratios right to hit that exact taste.

This took more than a few trials. It is much easier writing a recipe for something new than trying to capture an elusive dish that lives in our memory. But we got there in the end and here it is now, for your wintertime pleasure, and as a little insurance policy for us against losing this recipe again.

This soup is a treasure trove of cold weather delights: tangy, creamy chickpeas, sweet discs of carrot, silky soft spinach and tender meat, suspended in the perfectly spiced broth, made thick and rich by all the marrow and collagen in the ox tail — a cut that is synonymous with cucina povera despite being very rich and extremely delicious.

You can pick the meat off the bone and return it to the soup for a more elegant presentation, but we strongly recommend serving the oxtail pieces whole. A big part of the pleasure is picking the meat off with your fingers.

Oxtail and chickpea stew

To serve 6-8 as a hearty dinner

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, season the pieces of oxtail all over with a teaspoon of salt and fry until golden on all sides. Lift and remove to a large plate or tray.

2. Add all the diced vegetables to the same saucepan with the other teaspoon of salt and the pepper, reduce the heat to medium and fry until the vegetables start to colour and soften (this will take about eight to 10 minutes).

3. Add the spices and the tomato paste to the vegetables and mix well to coat. Add the drained chickpeas and mix again.

4. Return the browned oxtail pieces and any juices they may have produced while resting to the saucepan so they fit in between all the vegetables and chickpeas. Cover with 1.5-2 litres of water, depending on the size of your saucepan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low, skim any foam that forms on the top, partially cover the saucepan and simmer for an hour.

5. Mix well and top up the water if needed (the contents should be covered at all times). Cook for a further hour and repeat again. Total cooking time should be about three hours on a low heat. You can tell the soup is ready if the meat pulls away easily from the bone. When you are ready to serve, add the baby spinach and mix to combine.
   If you prefer to serve this soup without the bones, you can prepare it in advance, cool it a little, remove the oxtail pieces, pull all the meat off the bones, discard the bones and return all the meat to the soup and heat again to serve. (Please note, it is much easier to pull away the meat when the soup is still warm.)

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