SPINACH - spinach and chick peas - September

Plenty of spinach in the garden - loving all this winter rain and spring sunshine!

Chick peas and spinach

Ingredients
2 cups dry chickpeas*
2 tb oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 slice of bread
1 kg spinach, rinsed and chopped roughly
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin, 1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
1 red pepper, roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon (vegetable) powdered stock
Salt and pepper to taste
(* or two large tins prepared chick peas, though it's easy to prepare chick peas if you allow time for soaking overnight)

Method
1. Soak two cups of chickpeas overnight.
2. Rinse chickpeas and place in large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to boil, then simmer until tender. Add extra water if needed to keep peas covered. Drain chick peas.
3. Heat 1 tb oil in frying pan. Fry bread until golden. Set aside.
4. Add the remaining oil to the frying pan and fry garlic cloves, red pepper, tomatoes and onion for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add cumin and coriander and cook for another 2 minutes. Add bread and vegetable mix to a food processor and mix to a paste.
5. Add spinach to pan and cook on low heat until wilted.
6. Add in paste mixture and mix well. Add vegetable stock powder.
7. Finally, add the drained chickpeas, coating them thoroughly.
8. Season to taste and serve.

Serves 4