Chickpea stew with turnip greens and chorizo

How to prepare a Galician stew . It seems that the winter cold has finally come suddenly. With this troubled time full of fog, rain and cold the body cries out for recipes for vegetables , spoon dishes or a good stew.

For example,  a great chickpea stew , accompanied by the vegetables with the best taste of Galicia, some great turnip greens from my father’s garden.

Stews are a star dish in autumn and winter, with a very close stall with  lentils with chorizo  or  chickpea casserole with chorizo . This recipe is very versatile for day to day because it can be taken as a single dish. It feels great, it also holds up very well in the fridge and is richer after a couple of days than freshly made.

This is the first time that I dare to put turnip greens on chickpeas, I usually choose spinach or chard but, what the hell, having turnip greens brought from the garden … Its leaves are very tender, with a large amount of vitamins and minerals, they are low in calories and they have a flavor to repeat over and over again. Talking about turnip greens is like eating Galicia but it is a great unknown in the diet of other communities.

Thanks to the work of several companies you can find them already in many supermarkets, in the form of canned but with a high quality. I must admit that I am privileged because those in this recipe are from my father’s garden. Here I leave you my tuned stew with its turnip greens and a little chorizo ​​to compensate for the health of the vegetables and legumes, and do not stop dedicating time and patience.

Before cooking chick peas

• You can find chickpeas as dried legumes or already cooked and in cans and in addition to various sizes. I like Castilian chickpeas of large size, spherical shape and a characteristic yellowish color.
• I recommend using dry chickpeas because they allow you to control the salt point of the stew by avoiding the treatments that the packaging brings, although in case of need or time, canned chickpea is a good option.
  • In case of deciding for the dried chickpeas, the day before we put them in warm water with a teaspoon of baking soda or a handful of salt and leave them to soak for about 12 hours overnight.
  • Wash them afterwards to remove possible impurities and to avoid straining any spoiled chickpea that can spoil a tooth, I say from experience. We will only have to drain and set aside until the time to prepare the stew.
  • If you are going to use them already cooked, wash them very well without leaving any residue of the gelatin that surrounds the chickpea
  • Add them at the end of the cooking of the stew, just so that they are well impregnated with the flavor of the rest of the ingredients.
  • I must admit that this type of chickpea already cooked and packaged in a glass jar saves a lot of time in the kitchen.

Preparation of turnip greens

• There are also two options. Buy them fresh and cook them or choose a trusted brand. There are many brands that you can find in large stores or in supermarkets.
• They are normally collected after the strong frosts in January. What makes them more tender and less acidic, although in areas like A Ribeira Sacra you can find them until well into February.
• I remind you that its intense green and fibrous leaves. They are great allies of a healthy kitchen due to their high water content. They also contain fiber, carbohydrates, protein and very low in calories.
  • If you buy them fresh (in any market in Galicia or online) they are put in a saucepan on the fire with plenty of salted water (to taste) and a pinch of bicarbonate (the tip of the knife) that will help fix the color of the turnip greens. This trick is valid for other vegetables such as spinach or Swiss chard.
  • When it starts to boil, we cook them for 5 minutes. Refresh in cold water, drain well and reserve.
  • It is not necessary to cook the vegetables too much as they will then cook for a few more minutes in the porridge. You will see how they maintain all their color, giving the stew freshness and its characteristic slightly sweet flavor.

Preparation of the chickpea and turnip stew

1. Chop the onion and leek into small pieces so that they melt in the cooking. In the end we will hardly notice any texture of any of the ingredients but its flavor.
2. As many people do not like to find garlic on the plate you can pour it whole and remove it halfway through cooking.
3. We wash and chop the tomatoes into two parts, they have been very good for the recipe. They were the ones I had in the fridge, but with good tomatoes, if possible ripe, the stew will be just as good.
4. In a saucepan we pour a good jet of extra virgin olive oil, onions, leeks and garlic cloves.
5. We fry everything for 10 minutes so that the flavors mix well. Add the tomatoes and the bay leaf for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the paprika from La Vera and the fried tomato sauce. We remove with a wooden spoon quickly and add the drained chickpeas. In case they are the ones we have had to soak, if we do not wait until almost the end of cooking. Stir again so that everything comes together well (3 minutes).

Stew cooking and final presentation

1. We cover with the meat or poultry stock (it is important that it is cold so that it begins to boil slowly). When it begins to boil, lower the heat so that it slows down and does not break the vegetables.
2. When it takes 1/2 hour cooking we add salt and pepper to taste.
3. We add 1 chorizo ​​and a little bacon or bacon if you have. We let them cook slowly at medium temperature for the next 30 minutes. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon.
4. We introduce the turnip greens that we have set aside and stir well. We leave another 5 minutes and serve. If you have opted for the packaged and cooked chickpeas add them in this step along with the turnip greens.
5. Emplatamos is a deep dish with the stew and the sliced ​​chorizo, that easy.

Tips and recommendations

• For vegetarians the recipe is the same but without meat. Of course, as an essential ingredient we can use algae. They are very good for chickpeas to have better digestion and they are also cooked earlier.
• If you add a handful of rice, they are already coming out.
• We can also present accompanying the stew with fried bread croutons. Delicious.