Spelt with Chicken & Pistou

📝 Ingredients

• 150 g pearled spelt (dry weight)
• 300 g chicken breast (2 fillets of about 150 g each)
• 1 courgette (about 250 g)
• 25 g fresh basil (about 1 bunch)
• 1 garlic clove
• 30 g Parmesan
• 3 tbsp olive oil (2 for the pistou, 1 for cooking)
• ½ unwaxed lemon (zest and juice)
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Saucepan
• Colander
• Large frying pan
• Blender
• Grater
• Chopping board

📖 Steps

1. Rinse the spelt in a sieve under cold water. Tip it into a pan of boiling salted water (about 3 times its volume) and cook for 20 to 25 min over a medium heat, until tender but still slightly firm to the bite. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, make the pistou: finely grate the zest of the half lemon and set it aside, then squeeze the juice. Pick the basil leaves (keep a few for serving) and blitz them with the peeled garlic, grated Parmesan, 2 tbsp oil and the juice until you have an almost smooth paste.
3. Cut the chicken fillets into 2 cm cubes and season with salt and pepper. Wash the courgette, trim the ends and cut it into 5 mm rounds, or half-moons if it's wide: evenly sized pieces all brown at the same time.
4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Sear the diced chicken for 6 to 7 min, stirring from time to time, until golden and no longer pink in the middle. Set aside on a plate.
5. In the same pan, brown the courgette rounds for 5 min over a medium heat, turning them halfway through: they should be coloured but still a little firm. Season lightly with salt.
6. Add the drained spelt and the chicken, then sauté for 2 min over a medium heat to warm everything through and let the spelt soak up the pan juices.
7. Take the pan off the heat, wait 1 min, then add the pistou and lemon zest and mix well. Never cook the pistou: the basil would turn black and lose its fragrance. Taste, add pepper, and salt only if needed, as the Parmesan is already salty.
8. Serve straight away in shallow bowls, hot or warm, scattered with the reserved basil leaves. Leftovers are also good cold the next day, like a grain salad.