Espinacas con garbanzos / avicas  

Spinach and garbanzos/ white bean

This marvelous dish, which  Spaniards call Espinacas con garbanzos, and the Sephardim of Turkey and the Balkans call Espinacas con avicas is truly a marvel. This dish also boasts the versatility of being a meze, a tapa, a stew, or even a soup, depending on the amount of liquid used to make it, the season it is made, and even the greens used for it. I prefer it as a tapa, and have eaten it all over southern Spain. Women in Istanbul, Izmir, and Sofia all gave me versions of this great dish, which they called “espinacas con avicas.”

In Spain, my friend José Manuel Muñoz Muñoz demonstrated how to replicate what he calls his mother’s “legendary” recipe. Another friend, Rabbi Haim Casas, reports that it is a popular Lenten dish in Andalucía, where it is served in a little clay terrine with some nice thin slices of bread to soak up all its goodness.

Don’t be put off by the fact that the recipe starts with spinach. This is one of the most delicious things you’ll eat.

Ingredients:

1- 1 ½  lb. fresh spinach 2 9-ounce bags of spinach

1 cup dried white beans or garbanzos

3 T olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic

1 t smoked paprika

¼ t red pepper flakes

½ t cumin

1 t oregano

2 tomatoes, peeled, or 1 T tomato paste

½ cup water or cooking liquid from the beans or garbanzos

pinch of saffron

pinch of salt

2 slices day-old bread

Method:

For the garbanzos, choose one of these methods. Since garbanzos are a hard bean, an overnight soak in water is a good practice. For stovetop cooking, drain the soaking water and cover with at least two times as much cooking water. Bring to a boil, and then let simmer until soft. I prefer not to salt them until almost soft.  That process can take 2-3 hours.

1. Pressure cook: Follow directions for your stove top pressure cooker or Instant Pot. For stovetop, I let them pressure cook for about ½ hour if they have soaked, longer if not.
2. Then there is the slow cooker/crock pot method. If you are doing this, set them on low and leave them all day.
3. Of course you can choose to open a can of garbanzos instead. When in a hurry, it’s perfectly understandable and perfectly tasty.

Many vegan recipes these days call for “garbanzo water” to make all sorts of surprising meringues, so if this tempts you, don’t throw away the water.

To assemble the dish:

1. In a small saucepan, sauté the minced onion until soft trying not to brown it.

2. Wash and dry the spinach (or other green you are using).

Method:

For the beans:

Use one of the four methods listed above.

To assemble the rest:

1. Wash the spinach, and wilt in a covered pan without adding any other water. About 4-5 minutes, but no longer. Remove to a colander and when cool, squeeze out all the water. Chop and set aside.
2. Heat the oil and sauté the onion until soft. Then add 2 of the garlic cloves very briefly. Add the paprika, red pepper flakes, cumin and oregano. Cook briefly and add the tomatoes allowing them to break down. If using tomato paste, add now.
3. When the tomatoes are disintegrated, gradually add the spinach, then the garbanzos or white beans and then the water.
4. Simmer for approximately 10 minutes until the liquid is absorbed.
5. In a small frying pan, heat some olive oil and fry two slices of bread. Allow to drain on a paper towel.
6. In a mortar, use a pestle to crush some saffron and add a few teaspoons of hot water to it. Add to spinach mixture.
7. In same mortar, crush the remaining 2 cloves of garlic with a little salt. Add this to the spinach mixture.
8. You may need a larger mortar for this last, but wonderfully yummy step. Take your fried bread and place it in the mortar and grind up the bread with the pestle. Add this to your spinach and serve it all at room temperature. This looks especially great in a small clay “cazuela,” a Spanish tapas dish.