Sweet, savoury and quick - a Barcelona tapas classic scaled up into a proper meat-free main.
Prep
10 mins
Cook
20 mins
Servings
4
Per serving
£1.55
Difficulty
easy
Espinacas a la catalana usually turns up in a small dish alongside four other things. Bulked out with chickpeas it stands up on its own, and the combination of sweet raisins, toasted pine nuts and a hit of sherry vinegar is far more interesting than the ingredient list suggests.
Put the raisins in a small bowl with the sherry and leave to plump while you cook everything else.
Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 3 minutes, shaking constantly, until patched with gold. Tip out immediately - they go from perfect to burnt in about fifteen seconds.
Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the onion with the salt for 8 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and chilli flakes for a minute.
Stir in the chickpeas and paprika and cook for 4 minutes, pressing some of them lightly with the back of a spoon so they break up a little and thicken the pan.
Add the spinach in big handfuls, letting each one wilt before adding the next. It will look like far too much and then suddenly look like not enough.
Tip in the raisins with their soaking sherry and cook for 2 minutes until the liquid has almost gone. Add the vinegar, lemon zest, pine nuts and black pepper, toss and serve warm.