Espinacas con Garbanzos Sevillanas

Ingredients

• 500 g cooked chickpeas, drained
• 600 g fresh spinach, washed
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 thick slices day-old bread, about 60 g
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp sweet pimentón
• 1/2 tsp hot pimentón
• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 150 ml vegetable stock or chickpea cooking water
• Salt and black pepper

Before you cook

• Wash the spinach thoroughly and shake off the excess water.
• Drain and rinse the cooked chickpeas.
• Peel the garlic cloves and leave them whole.
• Measure the cumin, both paprikas and the vinegar into small bowls, since they go in fast at the end.

Steps

1. Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat.
2. Fry the whole garlic cloves for two minutes until golden, then lift them into a mortar.
3. Fry the bread slices in the same oil for two minutes a side until crisp, then break them into the mortar with the garlic.
4. Add the cumin, both paprikas and a good pinch of salt to the mortar and pound everything to a coarse damp paste.
5. Pour the sherry vinegar into the mortar and work it through until you have a loose brown sauce.
6. Pile the spinach into the hot pan in batches, turning it with tongs, and cook for four minutes until it has collapsed.
7. Drain off any water that has pooled in the pan, since the dish should end up dry rather than soupy.
8. Add the chickpeas to the spinach and turn them through for two minutes.
9. Scrape in the mortar paste and pour in the stock.
10. Simmer for eight minutes, stirring now and then, until the liquid has almost gone and the sauce clings to the chickpeas.
11. Taste and adjust the salt, pepper and vinegar until it tastes bright and warmly spiced.
12. Serve hot in small earthenware dishes with bread on the side.