Moro's Chickpeas and Spinach (Garbanzos con Espinacas)

Name: Moro's Chickpeas and Spinach (Garbanzos con Espinacas)
Cuisine: African
Ingredients: 200 grams (7 ounces) chickpeas, soaked overnight with a pinch of baking soda, or two 400-gram cans of chickpeas, rinsed; 6 tablespoons olive oil; 500 grams (18 ounces) spinach, washed; 75 grams (3 ounces) white bread (about two 1/2-inch slices), crusts removed, cut into small cubes; 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced; 3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds,; 1 small bunch fresh oregano, roughly chopped; 1 small dried red chile, crumbled; 1 1/2 tablespoons good-quality red wine vinegar; 1 pinch saffron (about 60 strands), infused in 4 tablespoons boiling water; 1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika; 1 pinch sea salt; 1 pinch black pepper

Instructions

This is your dinner-maker. Sam and Sam Clark use it to marry chickpeas and spinach, but it could just as easily be lentils and mushrooms, roast chicken and leeks, broccoli rabe and penne. You could have instead toasted up the bread with whatever flavors you're interested in tonight: fennel seeds or fresh thyme or coriander or mustard. Deb Perelman's version on Smitten Kitchen had tomato sauce, and now she won't make bread sauce without it. It's a slot machine dinner with smushed bread crumbs as the wildcard. Adapted slightly from Moro: The Cookbook (Ebury Press, 2003).

Updated at: Mon, 13 Jan 2025 06:37:20 GMT