Chickpeas with prawns recipe
Easy to cook, tasty and healthy
This is a well-balanced dish with vegetables, carbohydrates and proteins.
Legumes are a healthy and comfort food. It is a nourishing dish in winter and a perfect ingredient for a salad in summer. In Spain, legumes are the main ingredient in many traditional dishes such as stews with different variations. I love this kind of surf’n’turf stew with chickpeas and prawns. You can find it in the South of Spain like Cadiz, where they combine two main ingredients in their larders, pulses and seafood.
You can make a version of this dish with spinach too. But that will be for the next episode 🙂
This is a healthy dish, based on the principles of the Mediterranean diet with an important nutritional value.
Hope you like it!
Ingredients (4 people)
500 gr. Chickpeas
200 gr. King prawns (with shell on if it is possible)
2 tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika
1/2 glass of white wine
Bay leave
Parsley
Salt
5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 litres of water
Step by step
1. Leave to soak the chickpeas in a big bowl with water overnight.
2. Wash the chickpeas and drain.
3. In a deep pan, pour water and bring it to boil. Then, add the chickpeas and let it boil for 60-90 minutes until they are tender. Keep an eye on the water level as chickpeas must be always covered by the liquid. If you need to add more water, do it but always warm water. When they are almost done, add salt and finish the cook. Drain them and let it cool down.
4. Peel the cloves of garlic and slice them thinly. Dice the onion, the peppers and the tomatoes.
5. Take the prawns’ shell off and set aside.
6. In a deep pot, pour the extra virgin olive oil and slowly fry the garlic. Add the onion and the green pepper and when it’s golden, add the prawns’ shells and the bay leave and simmer. Add the white wine and cook until it reduces. Then incorporate the tomatoes and cook in a low heat for 20-25 minutes.
7. Blend the sauce and strain it. You can use a big strainer and a spoon to do it so you get all the juices of the sauce and remove any small portion of the shells that can be in the sauce. Then, add the chickpeas and mix.
8. Season the prawns with a pinch of salt and stir fry in extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle the sweet paprika and cook with the prawns. Don’t cook it too much or the paprika can be bitter. Add the prawns to the pan and cook for 10 minutes.
9. Remove from the heat and let it relax for five minutes and plate it up.
Nutritional value
The dish combines proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins.
The legumes contribute to reduces the cardiovascular risks and help with digestive problems or constipation for its high levels of fibre. And the prawns provides with proteins and vitamins.
The recipe uses a classic Spanish “sofrito” made with onion, green pepper, garlic and tomato. I have been reading about the healthy value of this sauce and why it is so common in many Mediterranean dishes. I will write about that soon.
Buen provecho!
Enjoy!
