Boiling water without burning it

Stew and salad? In particular, jenett's chickpea-tomato-spinach dish is stewlike and warm and tasty and easy to make. Recipe here. (The recipe includes peanut butter or tahini, and once it's there you wouldn't guess because it doesn't taste like it, it just makes the dish creamy and yummy. I bring it up to mention that if you leave that out, the dish looks very Christmasy with the green spinach and the red tomatoes and the off-white chickpeas. This may be a plus or a minus for you.)