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Spanish spinach and chickpeas

Spanish-Spinach-and-Chickpeas

The Spanish spinach and chickpeas (“espinacas con garbanzos” in Spanish) are usually served as a tapa, appetizer or a side dish, but a good portion of it with some bread crumbles, could perfectly fit as a main course. This vegan meal isn´t just very easy to make, but also, it is totally unexpansive, so literally everyone can make it at home. If you are vegan and you know a little bit of the traditional Spanish food, you may also know that it´s not easy to find meals that do not have any meat of fish and that´s the best part of this plate, it´s one of the not many plates that is perfect for a vegan or vegetarian diet. If you are traveling to the south of Spain, more specific to Seville, in many different restaurants they will serve you spinach with chickpeas.

Spinach and chickpeas recipe

As we said before, it doesn´t take much time and work to prepare this delicious food and it´s also very cheap! We always recommend doing a lot, as you will be able to use it for tapas or side dishes too. You can add to it whatever you want, and it will be tasty, but here is the authentic recipe and it´s ingredients:

Ingredients

  • Garlic cloves
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Sweet Spanish paprika
  • Spinaches
  • About 120ml of water
  • Chickpeas
  • Salt (Optional)

How to make them?

  1. To begin, chop the spinaches and the garlic cloves
  2. Take a pan and drop some extra virgin olive oil on it. Once it´s warm, through the chopped garlic cloves and let them warm over medium heat until they are golden brown.
  3. Add the paprika and shake it, then add the chopped spinaches. Through in about 120 ml of water and let them cook for about 5 minutes.
  4. Add the chickpeas stir it and let it all cook for 5 more minutes. You can add more oil or paprika if you want.
  5. That would be it! Your delicious meal is ready to be eaten!

Spinach and chickpeas varieties:

Although just how we told you it is delicious, some people may want it in a different way or maybe add more stuff to it, so hear are some possible variation you can make with the Spanish chickpeas and spinach:

Spinach and chickpeas salad

You can go further, and once you have the spinach and chickpeas make a salad with it! Put it all in a bowl and add some extra raisins, lemon juice (or vinegar) and your spinach salad with chickpeas will be ready! You can add some extra olive oil if you feel like it!

Chickpeas and spinach soup

Although this may sound like the famous “cocido” as it can also have some spinach and it´s a very famous soup of Spain, it is not quite the same. This soup as the main dish is also very famous in the community of Andalusia.

Soup with chickpeas and spinach recipe

  1. If the chickpeas are natural put them in a bowl of water the day before. The other option is buying a can of chickpeas already cooked.
  2. Same thing happens with the spinach. Either buy them fresh and boil them or get them frozen. In the second case you will just have to follow the instructions of the bag.
  3. Wash and cut some carrots, an onion, the leek and some tomatoes and add them to the cooking pot. Stir them.
  4. Add 2L of water to the pot, and some salt and paprika. Once it is boiling add the chickpeas and let them cook for about 30-40 minutes (if they are natural) or 5-10 minutes if they are from the can.
  5. During the last 5 minutes add the spinach.
  6. That will be it, your chickpeas and spinach soup is ready to be served!

Pasta with chickpeas and spinach

As you can probably tell, after eating this meal you will be more than full, therefore we could say it´s a perfect dish for celebrations such as thanksgiving! And it doesn´t really take much time to do it. In one side, cook the pasta (like any other pasta) and in the other side the spinach and chickpeas like we explained you at the beginning of the article. Once you have done it, just mix it all together and it will be ready!

Curried chickpeas and spinach

To finish, one of the most famous varieties, the chickpea and spinach curry recipe. It´s the same as the original one, the main difference is instead of adding paprika add some curry to eat. We love curry, so for us this is delicious! Hope you enjoy it, would love to know if you try it what you think of it and which variety is your favorite!!