Spinach and chickpeas with bread
An easy, comforting, cheap go-to dish packed with store cupboard and freezer staples.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil (or vegetable, sunflower or rapeseed oil)
- 400g tin chickpeas or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (any tinned beans will do)
- 3–4 garlic cloves, crushed, or 2 tbsp garlic ±è³Ü°ù±ðé
- 2cm/1in fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 tbsp ground paprika
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú bread (any bread will do), torn into chunks
- 150g/5½oz frozen spinach, defrosted and drained (or fresh or tinned, or chopped kale)
- 400ml/14fl oz vegetable stock
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ½ lemon, juice only, or 1 tbsp bottled lemon juice, to serve
Method
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the chickpeas, garlic, ginger, paprika, cumin and turmeric, and cook for 3–4 minutes. If it starts to stick to the bottom add a little stock.
Add the bread and spinach and stir well. Add the stock, season with salt and pepper, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20–30 minutes.
Squeeze in the lemon juice just before serving hot or cold.
Recipe Tips
You can use dried beans instead of tinned, but make sure you soak them overnight then boil them the following day according to the packet instructions before adding them to the dish. You can make garlic paste ahead of time and freeze it in ice cube trays: put a bulb of garlic into a food processor with a touch of water and blend it to a paste (you can do the same with the fresh root ginger).
In November 2023 this recipe was costed at an average of £4.73 (using frozen spinach) and £3.89 (using kale) when checking prices at four UK supermarkets. This recipe is designed to be made in conjunction with a low-cost store-cupboard, for more details click here to see how our budget recipes were costed.
