This is a powerhouse of a dish with lots of nutrients, beautiful in appearance and very satisfying in terms of flavours and textures.
I make more spinach puree and freeze some of it to always have handy to use to finish soups with or add to pasta dishes.
Ingredients (serves 2)
For the chickpeas
- 280g cooked chickpeas (or from a tin)
- 3 celery sticks, finely chopped
- 1 small onion, roughly chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp vegan bouillon
- 1 bay leaf
- A pinch of crushed celery seeds
- A pinch of crushed chilli flakes
- 1 heaped tbsp corn flour
- Juice of half a lemon
For the spinach purée
- 100g spinach
- 50ml water
- ½ tsp vegan bouillon
For the lovage fritters
- 50g of fresh breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp chopped lovage
- 1 tbsp flax seed soaked in 3 tbsp warm water for 10 minutes
- 1 shallot
- Zest of half a lemon
- 1 tbsp of ground frygania (we blitz French crispy toast to make it) or dried breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and more for frying
To make the spinach purée, put the spinach with the water and the vegan bouillon in a saucepan and cook over low heat for 3-4 minutes till the spinach is wilted. Empty into a bowl and place in a fridge to cool quickly to preserve its vivid colour. When the spinach is cool, blitz in a small blender. Season. Warm up before serving.
For the chickpeas, bring a pan with the olive oil to a medium heat. Add the onion, celery and carrots and sweat for a few minutes. Add the chickpeas,bay leaf and crushed celery seeds and stir. Add the bouillon and the water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook for approximately 15 minutes. If the liquid has been absorbed by then add a little more as we need to have a bit of a sauce in this dish.
In a small bowl, mix the cornflour with the lemon juice. Take some of the hot liquid from the pan and add to the cornflour mix in a thin stream whisking at the same time. Add a little more liquid and then return the whole thing to the pan, mixing it well with the contents of the pan. This will thicken the remaining liquid. Season and taste for flavour, you may need to add a little bit more lemon.
To make the lovage fritters, sweat the chopped shallot in a bit of olive oil. In a blender, blitz the soaked flax seeds. Add to a bowl with the chopped lovage, lemon zest salt and pepper. Leave for a few minutes for the crumbs to soften a bit. Take equal quantity of mix in your hands, shape it into balls. Dust with the frygania or dried breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil for a few minutes.
Serve the chickpeas, run some spinach puree through them and finish with the fritters and some chilli flakes.