Spanish Chickpea Spinach Stew Recipes

SPANISH CHICKPEA AND SPINACH STEW

Steps:

• Heat up the oil in a large frying pan (ideally with a lid). Add chopped onion and fry on a low heat until almost translucent, stirring from time to time.
• Add chopped garlic. Keep on stirring frequently until the onion is translucent and garlic softens completely and releases its beautiful aroma.
• Add all the ground spices to the fried onion and garlic mixture and stir them around well. Fry them off gently for a minute or two stirring the whole time as they burn easily.
• Add tomato paste to the pan and stir it into the onion and garlic mixture.
• Squash plum tomatoes with a potato masher in a separate bowl before adding them to the pan. Add tomatoes to the pan, salt and half of the sugar. Let the sauce thicken by simmering it on a low heat with no lid on. Give the sauce a good stir from time to time.
• Once the sauce thickens, taste it and season with some black pepper and more sugar if needed. I used 3 tsp of sugar in this recipe as my tomatoes were quite tangy, but you may not need as much.
• Stir in cooked chickpeas and let them warm through. Now add in the spinach and place the lid on to let spinach wilt and cook in the steam. If you are not in a rush, you can gently pan-fry the spinach in a little olive oil and garlic separately and then add it to the dish, but that's optional.
• Serve over rice, sprinkled with toasted almonds and fresh parsley.

SPANISH CHICKPEA & SPINACH STEW

Steps:

• Heat a large fry pan or stock pot with a medium heat and add in 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Meanwhile, grab 10 blanched raw almonds and remove the skins from 3 cloves of garlic
• After heating the oil for 2 minutes, add the almonds & cloves of garlic into the pan, mix with the olive oil continuously, after 3 minutes and the ingredients are lightly browned, remove the pan from the heat, transfer the almonds & garlic into a mortar, add in 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley and a little sea salt, using a pestle, pound down on the ingredients until you form a paste, set aside
• Using the same pan, heat it with a medium heat again, after 2 minutes add in 1 onion roughly diced, mix with the olive oil, after 4 minutes and the onions are translucent, add in 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika and 1/2 tsp ground cumin, quickly mix together, then add in 1 tbsp sherry vinegar and 1/2 cup tomato sauce, mix together and simmer
• After 3 minutes and the tomato sauce has thickened, add in 2 cups cooked chickpeas and season with sea salt & black pepper, gently mix together, then add in 2 cups vegetable broth, pinch in a 1/4 tsp saffron threads and add the almond & garlic mixture, turn up the heat to a medium-high heat, mix together and bring to a boil, then place a lid on the pan and lower the heat to a low-medium heat
• After simmering for 5 minutes, remove the lid, add in 5 oz fresh spinach, mix together so the spinach wilts, once its all been wilted, remove the pan from the heat, transfer into shallow bowls, enjoy!