Espinacas con Garbanzos a la Sevillana
Espinacas con Garbanzos a la Sevillana
La Comida Hecha Rápida (The Weeknight Heart)
In America, we are taught to barely wilt our spinach to keep it bright and fresh, but in Seville, the grandmothers know better. This dish—a living relic of Andalusia’s Moorish history—relies on a magic trick of Spanish home cooking called a majado: a pounded paste of fried bread, garlic, and vinegar that thickens without flour. Using canned chickpeas and frozen chopped spinach isn't cheating; it's exactly how modern Spanish cooks get this dark, rich, uncompromisingly savory taste of home on the table on a Tuesday night. Forget the tomatoes and embrace the heavy pour of olive oil.
Before you start
Wring the water from the spinach.
Place the thawed spinach in a clean kitchen towel and aggressively squeeze out as much liquid as humanly possible until it forms a dense, dry puck.
Ingredients
- extra virgin olive oil1/3 cup
- garlic cloves4 large
- day-old crusty white bread2 large slices
- sherry vinegar1 tbsp
- canned chickpeas15 oz
- frozen chopped spinach16 oz
- sweet smoked Spanish paprika1 tbsp
- ground cumin1 tsp
- ground coriander1/2 tsp
- ground cloves1 pinch
- ground ginger1 pinch
- water1/2 cup
- kosher saltto taste
- black pepperto taste
Method
- 01
Fry the garlic to scent the oil.
Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat, fry the whole garlic cloves until deeply golden brown on all sides, then transfer them to a small food processor.
- 02
Crisp the bread.
In the same oil, fry the torn bread chunks until golden brown all over, then transfer them to the food processor with the garlic.
- 03
Pull the skillet off the heat.
Leave the remaining flavored oil in the skillet, but remove it from the burner so the spices don't scorch in the next steps.
- 04
Blend the majado.
To the food processor, add the sherry vinegar, cumin, coriander, a generous pinch of salt, and a splash of water, then pulse until it forms a thick, chunky paste.
- 05
Bloom the spices in the residual heat.
With the skillet still off the heat, stir the smoked paprika, clove, and ginger into the warm olive oil for 15 to 30 seconds until the oil turns a deep, fiery red.
- 06
Sauté the spinach.
Return the skillet to medium-low heat, add the dry spinach, and stir well to break it up and coat it in the spiced oil for 3 to 5 minutes.
- 07
Simmer and bind.
Fold in the drained chickpeas, the majado paste, and the half cup of water, then simmer covered on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until the liquid is mostly absorbed.
Notes
This is a dry dish.
Do not treat this like a stew or potaje. It is a plato seco, meant to be scooped up with extra wedges of fried bread.
Do not fear the olive oil.
A third of a cup might seem like a heavy pour for a weeknight, but the olive oil is the literal foundation of the sauce. It emulsifies with the majado to bind the dish together.
From Cook Spanish in America.