Warm chickpea salad

Fifteen minutes and a complete dinner. Golden chickpeas are nothing like the ones from the can.

15 min
Total time: 15 min
Hands-on: 2 servings
Servings: 385 cal
Per serving: Easy
Difficulty: Skillet
Method

Photo: Sucram Yef · CC BY 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Ingredients

2 servings

Nutrition facts

per serving

385cal

Protein: 19 g20 %
Carbs: 42 g44 %
Fat: 15 g36 %
Fiber: 13 g
Sugarstotal, including the natural sugars in fruit and dairy: 6 g

Approximate values, calculated from food composition tables. They vary with the brands and cuts you use.

Step by step

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Warm chickpea salad

Fifteen minutes and a complete dinner. Golden chickpeas are nothing like the ones from the can.

1Step 1 of 6

Rinse and dry the chickpeas

Drain them and rinse under the tap until the water runs clear: that's where the canned taste goes. Then dry them well with a kitchen towel or paper towels.

Tip: Dry chickpeas brown; wet ones steam. The towel isn't optional.

2Step 2 of 6

Brown them over high heat

In a large skillet with the oil good and hot, add the chickpeas in a single layer and leave them for 5 minutes, barely moving them, until they're golden and some split open a little.

05:005 min · Brown them over high heat

3Step 3 of 6

Garlic and spices

Lower the heat, add the sliced garlic and cook for 1 minute. Take the pan off the heat, add the paprika and cumin and stir so they coat the chickpeas without burning.

4Step 4 of 6

Cherry tomatoes in

Return to medium heat, add the halved cherry tomatoes and sauté for 3 minutes until they start releasing their juice and break down a little.

03:003 min · Cherry tomatoes in

5Step 5 of 6

Spinach off the heat

Turn off the heat, pile the spinach on top and toss. In the residual heat it wilts in under a minute and stays bright green and fresh, not cooked.

6Step 6 of 6

Lemon and serve

Squeeze the half lemon over the top, adjust the salt and pepper and serve warm.

About this recipe

A can of chickpeas is one of the best buys you can make: dinner sorted in fifteen minutes for very little money. The problem is the canned taste, which you get rid of with a thirty-second trick: rinse them well and brown them in a skillet.

As they brown, they get a slightly crisp skin on the outside while staying creamy inside. They no longer seem like canned chickpeas.

Warm, not cold: the spinach goes in at the end and wilts in the residual heat without actually cooking.

Tips for getting it right

The lemon at the end is what lifts the dish. Without it, it tastes flat.
For something heartier, add a fried egg on top or 2 oz (60 g) of crumbled feta.
It's also very good cold the next day, although the spinach loses its looks.

Storage

2 days in the fridge. If you're packing it for lunch, keep the spinach separate and combine when eating.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Are canned chickpeas as healthy as dried ones?

Nutritionally they're practically the same. The only thing to watch is salt: rinsing them well removes much of the sodium from the canning liquid. For convenience on a weeknight, canned wins hands down.

How do I get crispy chickpeas in a skillet?

Dry them very well first, use a large skillet so they aren't crowded, hot oil, and leave them alone. Stirring constantly is what stops the crust from forming.

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