Andalusian Chickpeas and Spinach with Cumin, Almonds, and Eggs
Chickpeas simmered with cumin, smoked paprika, and tomato, then loaded with spinach, sharpened with vinegar, and finished with eggs cracked straight into the skillet.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
In Seville this shows up in every bar as a small plate, chickpeas and spinach in a dark spiced sauce, and I have been making a dinner-sized version of it for years. The eggs are my addition, and they change what it is: with two set into each portion it stops being a side dish and becomes the meal. Everything happens in one wide skillet in under twenty minutes, most of it while you stand there watching spinach disappear. It is the dinner I make on a Thursday when the refrigerator is looking thin and I have not been to the store.
The flavor comes from three moves, none of them long. Cumin seed and garlic go into hot olive oil first so the spice blooms in fat rather than sitting on top of the dish. Smoked paprika goes in off the heat, because it scorches in seconds and turns bitter. And a good hit of vinegar goes in at the very end, which is what keeps something this soft and earthy from tasting heavy. Chopped almonds toasted in the same pan at the start are the old Spanish trick for texture, and they stay crunchy against the spinach right through the meal.
Cracking the eggs straight into wells means the whites set in the sauce and take on the paprika, and the yolks stay loose if you cover the pan and watch it. Break one and it runs through the chickpeas into a sauce of its own. I take the skillet to the table and let people help themselves with a spoon, and I put bread out for anyone who wants to mop the pan, though there is enough on the plate to eat as it is. Leftovers are good cold the next day, which is not true of many dishes with eggs in them.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups no-salt-added chickpeas, drained and rinsed well, from two 15 oz cans
- 8 large eggs
- 14 oz spinach, thick stems removed, washed and still damp
- 3/4 cup crushed tomatoes
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1/3 cup blanched almonds, roughly chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar, or sherry vinegar if you have it
- 1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 2 tsp cumin seed, or 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 1/8 tsp cayenne
- 3/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/6 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Toast the almonds: Warm 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat and add the chopped almonds. Stir for 2 minutes, until they smell toasted and have gone a shade darker, then tip them onto a plate. They will carry on cooking on the hot plate, so pull them a little before they look done.
- Bloom the spice: Add the rest of the olive oil, the onion, and the cumin seed to the same pan and cook for 4 minutes, until the onion is soft and the seeds are fragrant and popping. Add the sliced garlic and the cayenne and cook 1 minute more, stirring, until the garlic is pale gold and not a shade past it.
- Build the base: Take the pan off the heat and stir in the smoked paprika, which will bloom instantly in the hot oil without scorching. Return it to the burner, add the crushed tomatoes, the black pepper, and the salt, and cook for 3 minutes, until the tomato darkens and starts to catch on the bottom of the pan.
- Chickpeas and spinach: Stir in the chickpeas and 1/3 cup water and simmer for 2 minutes, pressing a few of them against the side of the pan with a spoon so they thicken the sauce. Add the spinach in three handfuls, folding each one under before the next goes in. It looks impossible and then it is gone, about 3 minutes in total.
- Set the eggs in: Stir in the vinegar and taste. Make eight shallow wells with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each. Cover the pan, turn the heat to medium-low, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until the whites are set and opaque and the yolks still wobble when you shake the handle.
- Finish and serve: Take the pan off the heat and scatter the toasted almonds and parsley over the top with a final grind of pepper. Let it sit for one minute, then bring the whole skillet to the table with a spoon and let people serve themselves two eggs and a good scoop of what is underneath.
Variations
- With chard: Swap the spinach for a bunch of swiss chard, cooking the sliced stems with the onion and the leaves at the end.
- Chorizo-style smoke: Double the smoked paprika and add a pinch of dried oregano for a deeper, meatier savor with no meat in the pan.
- Poached rather than baked: Skip the wells and serve the chickpeas in bowls with a soft-boiled egg halved over each one.
- Yogurt on top: Spoon garlicky yogurt around the edge of the pan before serving so it melts into the sauce.
- Lemon in place of vinegar: Finish with the juice of a whole lemon for a brighter, less rounded acidity.
Storage & Leftovers
The chickpea and spinach base keeps four days in a sealed container and is better on day two, once the cumin and smoked paprika have settled into the tomato. If you know you want leftovers, cook the base and only set eggs into the portion you are eating tonight.
Once the eggs are in, the dish keeps two days. The yolks will firm up in the refrigerator, so treat leftovers as a different dish and eat them cold or barely warm, which is genuinely good with an extra splash of vinegar and more parsley.
The base freezes for three months without the eggs, in flat sealed portions. Thaw overnight, reheat in a skillet with a splash of water until it bubbles, then crack in fresh eggs and cover. That is a ten minute dinner from a freezer bag, and it is the reason I often double the base.
Notes & Tips
- Use a wide pan: Eight eggs need eight wells that do not run into one another. A 12-inch skillet is the size, and anything smaller means cooking in two rounds.
- Paprika goes in off the heat: Smoked paprika burns in about ten seconds in a hot pan and turns bitter for good. Pull the skillet off the burner, stir it in, and put it back.
- Crush a few chickpeas: Pressing a spoonful of them against the pan releases their starch and thickens the sauce, so the eggs sit in something that holds them rather than sliding around.
- Add the spinach in stages: A whole bag at once cools the pan and steams into a gray heap. Three handfuls, each folded under before the next, keeps the color.
- Wash the spinach and leave it damp: The water still clinging to the leaves is what wilts them. Spun bone dry, they scorch at the edges before they collapse.
- Vinegar before the eggs, not after: Stirred in while the base is bubbling, the sharpness rounds out and spreads. Splashed on at the end it sits on the surface and tastes harsh.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Chickpeas, spinach, and eggs together are what make this a whole dinner out of a pan of pantry food. The chickpeas give it body and fiber, the eggs sit on top carrying most of the protein, and the spinach brings the green weight that keeps it from feeling like a bowl of beans.
- Chickpeas hold their shape through a simmer and go creamy in the middle, and the few you crush against the pan thicken everything around them. Their fiber is the slow, soluble kind, and they bring plant protein, folate, and iron to the plate as well.
- Spinach cooks down to a fraction of its volume, which is the easy way to eat a great deal of it at once, and what stays behind is folate, vitamin K, and iron in a form that the tomato and vinegar in the pan help you absorb.
- Eggs cooked with the yolks still loose are the richest thing here. Beyond the protein in the white, the yolk carries choline, vitamin D, and the lutein that gives it its color, and it runs into the chickpeas as a sauce.
- Cumin seed toasted in oil, smoked paprika stirred in off the heat, and vinegar at the end are the three flavors people try to name and cannot. Toasted almonds scattered over the top are the crunch against all that softness.
- As you eat, break a yolk into the chickpeas and watch it work through them before you take the next bite, and let the crunch of the almonds tell you to slow down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use frozen spinach?
Yes, and it is what I reach for in winter. Use a 10 oz block, thawed and squeezed hard in a towel until no more water comes out, and add it with the chickpeas rather than in handfuls. Skip the extra water in that step, since frozen spinach brings its own.
My yolks set hard before the whites did. What went wrong?
The heat was too high, so the bottom cooked faster than the steam under the lid. Turn it down to medium-low once the lid goes on, and start checking at three and a half minutes. Cold eggs straight from the refrigerator also help, since they buy you an extra minute.
What else can I put in this?
A diced potato added with the onion makes it more substantial and adds about six minutes. Sliced red pepper works well with the paprika, and a handful of raisins is traditional in some versions if you want a sweet note against the smoke.
Is this filling enough to be dinner on its own?
For most people, yes. Two eggs and a generous scoop of chickpeas per person is a full plate, and the spinach and almonds add real bulk. If you are feeding big appetites, put out bread for the pan or add a second can of chickpeas.