Culture

Chickpeas are just the best. Every time I go home for a holiday I fill a gym bag with delicious things from my mum’s pantry (Air NZ “sports allowance”, thank you!), including various nuts and seeds and dried fruit and, of course, cans of delicious legumey goodness. Mum just sighs wearily and reminds me to remember this time in my life when I consider farming her off to an old folk’s home.
Dreaming mate.

Anyhow, after several beers while waiting for my flatmates to do the flat shop, making paella seemed like a fantastic idea! And what better to accompany this than delicious, nutritious spiced chickpeas in a sautéed spinach, yoghurt and tomato sauce? Bam. For all you who are not quite sure what paella is (do not be ashamed. The dish is almost as misunderstood as the pronunciation), it is a rice dish, a bit like a risotto, traditionally made in Spain with heaps of seafood. But seafood is expensive (and also I have a worrying feeling that if I asked my flatmates to buy it they would come home with a can of tuna), so I have adapted the recipe. Oh, and it is pronounced pie-aye-ya. Like, a deaf person asking a German what’s for lunch. “Pie!” “Aye?” “Ja!”. Right, okay, not as funny now.
 
A note on the spices; use what you what, substitute what you want, flag what you don’t have/can’t be bothered digging out of the noodles in the dank recesses of your pantry. I understand. Super cheap spices can be got at that Indian place on St Andrew Street. though, so, really, there is no excuse. Also, I add a shake of a packet of everything. If you like it, add more. If it’s gross, don’t put it in.
 
For the paella:
 
2 cups white rice
One can tomatoes
One onion, diced
Cumin seeds and poppy seeds
Chilli powder
Turmeric
Ground coriander
Paprika
Oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh coriander
 
Sauté onions until transparent in a massive pot. Add seeds. Fry until seeds make fun popping noises. Add the rest of the spices and fry for another minute. Add the rice and sauté until rice is browning very slightly. Add can of tomatoes, fill the can up with water and add that too. Turn heat down and stir occasionally. After about half an hour the rice should be nice and sticky and all the liquid absorbed. Taste it to see if it’s cooked. If it’s not, add a bit more liquid and keep stirring. Season vigorously. When cooked, rice should be slightly sticky but not quite as much as a risotto, and cooked through. Stir through chopped fresh coriander (or, as I had to use, dried flakes of coriander leaves in a tiny packet, because my flatmate wasn’t quite sure what coriander actually was. It is a leaf.)
 
For the chickpeas:
 
One onion
Oil
2 cans chickpeas
Tablespoon of brown sugar (or white, or honey is almost as good)
2 fresh tomatoes
Big packet of spinach or silverbeet
About a cup of yoghurt (I had to use passionfruit flavor. It was…interesting.)
Lemon juice
Garam masala
Nutmeg (or substitute coriander, mango powder or Chinese five spice, but nutmeg is the best thing here)
Ground coriander
Ground cumin
Turmeric
Salt and pepper
 
Sauté onions until transparent in another, quite large pot (all my recipes seem to start like this. Shame if you are allergic to onions, they appear to be pretty much the main ingredient in vegetarian meals). Add spices (all apart from garam masala). Fry for a minute. Add both cans of chickpeas, including the juice they are in, and the brown sugar. Cook away until the chickpeas start to get a bit dry. Roughly chop and add the spinach. Stir through, and turn down the element. Cook this until the spinach is all nicely wilted and the chickpeas are going quite soft (about 15-20 mins). Add the chopped fresh tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes soften but don’t fall apart. Turn off the element but leave the pot sitting on it. Stir through the juice of one lemon (or about four squirts if you are using those feral little bottles), a big shake of garam masala, the yoghurt and heaps of salt and pepper. Leave for five minutes on the turned-off element to nicely go together. Serve.
 
I served this with beer (low-carb) and little flatbreads. I usually make my own flatbreads, I have the BEST recipe, like, totally foolproof. Email if you would like it.
 
Enjoy