Categories: Beans, Chick-Peas, Healthy, January2013, Mediterranean diet, Spinach

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound (1 cup) dried chick peas, washed and picked over
• 6 cups water
• salt
• 1 pound fresh spinach, stemmed
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp crushed coriander seed
• freshly ground pepper
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 large garlic cloves, crushed or put through a press
• 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1 tsp dried mint or 2 tsp chopped fresh mint
• paprika

Directions

1. 1) Soak the chick-peas for several hours in 3 times their volume of water (use boiled water if your tap water is hard). Drain and combine with 6 cups water in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until tender. Add salt to taste. Drain and retain 3/4 cup of the cooking liquid.

2. 2) Wash the spinach but don’t dry it; finely chop the leaves.

3. 3) Heat the olive oil and saute the onion with the coriander seed until tender and golden. Add the spinach and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the chick-peas and about 1/2 cup of their liquid, season with a little salt and pepper to taste, and simmer, uncovered, for 5 to 10 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Stir in the lemon juice and transfer to a serving dish.

4. 4) Stir the crushed garlic into the yogurt and add the mint and salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the chick-peas and spinach and sprinkle with paprika. Serve warm of chilled. This dish will keep for a day or two in the refrigerator, and up to 4 days without the final yogurt topping.

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